The United States withdraws from UNESCO
The director of the organization has assured that they expected the decision and that they are ready to face it.
BarcelonaUS President Donald Trump announced this Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The decision, effective December 31, 2026, was motivated by the UN agency's failure to serve US national interests, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. The United States has 26 sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, including national parks like the Grand Canyon and monuments like the Statue of Liberty. "The globalist agenda," the statement added, "contradicts the America First foreign policy" promoted by Trump. Bruce also spoke of "anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization" following the admission of Palestine as a member state of the agency.
The decision did not surprise UNESCO, which had already anticipated the measure when Trump ordered a specific review earlier this year. However, Audrey Azoulay, the organization's director-general, deeply regretted the US government's decision but assured that they are prepared to address it, including in the budgetary sphere. The United States contributes approximately 8% of UNESCO's total budget, a figure much lower than the 20% it represented before Trump withdrew in 2018.
In fact, this is the third time the United States has left the United Nations agency since its founding in 1945, and the second time under a Trump administration. When the American tycoon arrived at the White House in 2017, he had already ordered the withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO., which they rejoined after Joe Biden requested it in 2021. The same thing happened in 1984, when then-President Ronald Reagan accused UNESCO of "excessive politicization."
Chain withdrawals
The withdrawal from UNESCO announced Tuesday is not an isolated event, but rather part of a broader dynamic championed by the Trump administration. In January 2025, hours after being sworn in as president, he signed orders to US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), while distancing itself from Biden's commitments to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to implement a global minimum tax on large corporations.
Shortly after, on February 4, Trump signed an executive order for the country to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), deeming it "anti-Semitic." He also approved financial and personnel cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), resulting in the suspension of many health, education, and epidemic control programs in more than 120 countries.
On the other hand, the federal budgets approved for 2026 imply the reduction or suspension of US contributions to international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States has not formally left, but Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw, arguing that its structure favors other countries, whose economic interests overrule the United States.
The strategy is not new. During Donald Trump's first term in the White House, between 2017 and 2021, the United States also withdrew from UNESCO, the WHO, the Paris Agreement, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Iran nuclear deal. Upon taking office in 2021, Joe Biden called for the US to rejoin all of these organizations.
