"Going through with these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe and less prosperous. The reduction of America’s humanitarian role and influence will run counter to American interests globally," Guterres said in a statement to reporters at the UN.

Lawyers for the government had said it would miss a deadline to release more than $1.5 billion in payments for past aid work and sought a late intervention from the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration says it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts.