Former Senegal president Macky Sall is emerging as a leading candidate for United Nations secretary general — and he’s running on a promise to “Make the U.N. Great Again.”
Sall, who served as Senegal’s president for 12 years and African Union president from 2022 to 2023, openly supports President Donald Trump’s foreign policy approach. In an interview with Breitbart, he called Trump “a peace builder” despite tensions with Iran.
“WITH OTHER MEMBER STATES TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD A BETTER UN, OR TO MUNGA — WE CAN MAKE THE UN GREAT AGAIN.”
Sall praised the United States as “the first power in the world to be with the U.N.,” while acknowledging “the U.N. also should be reformed to be efficient.”
The “MUNGA” slogan — first coined by Trump’s U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz — has become a rallying cry inside the global organization, according to Hugh Dugan, a U.N. insider who served as a U.S. delegate for 26 years.
Dugan explained the push is feeding on growing dissatisfaction among member states over the U.N. being “mired in bureaucracy and unable to fulfill its core functions.”
Current U.N. Secretary General António Guterres will leave office in 2027 after a decade marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Trump has been highly critical of the U.N. during both terms, questioning in a September speech: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?”
Trump stated the U.N. “has such tremendous potential, but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential. For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up.”
Despite media reports suggesting Trump is distancing from the U.N., Dugan said the president “sent his very strongest team” to the organization and resumed $1.8 billion in U.S. funding to humanitarian work last week.
“BECAUSE I WAS IN AFRICA, I SAW HOW SOMETIMES THESE PEACE OPERATIONS ARE WASTING MONEY, AND THEY HAVE NO EFFICIENCIES.”
Sall positioned himself as uniquely qualified because he witnessed U.N. waste firsthand in Africa.
“I have the capacity as a political leader,” Sall told Breitbart, adding he could “optimize the management, and to cut the cost” if he gains U.S. support.
The next secretary general must gain broad support and avoid a veto from any one of the Security Council’s permanent five members: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.
Dugan framed the selection as “the most consequential decision for the future relevance of the U.N.” on whether the organization will serve member states “and not be its own deep state with entitled bureaucrats.”
“The big word in the end that I think encompasses all of this is the word accountability,” he said. “The U.N. bureaucracy doesn’t feel those pressures, and therefore, we need to create a culture of enhanced accountability.”
