The United States has announced it will withdraw from UNESCO — the United Nations’ cultural and educational agency — effective December 31, 2026. The decision, made public on Tuesday, marks the third such withdrawal and the second under former President Donald Trump’s leadership.
The U.S. State Department said continued membership in the organization “is not in the national interest of the United States,” citing what it called UNESCO’s “divisive social and cultural agenda” and bias against Israel.
“Today, the United States announced our decision to withdraw from UNESCO,” said State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a post on X.
In an accompanying statement, Bruce elaborated: “UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals — a globalist, ideological agenda at odds with our America First foreign policy.”
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a post on X.
She also criticized UNESCO’s 2011 decision to admit the “State of Palestine” as a full member, calling it “highly problematic” and claiming it has “contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”
The withdrawal continues a pattern of U.S. disengagement from global institutions during Trump’s leadership. In his previous term, Trump pulled the United States out of several international agreements and bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Paris climate accord, and the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump’s renewed push to distance the U.S. from international organizations includes plans to again exit the WHO and to cut support for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The move is considered a setback for UNESCO, which was founded in 1945 to promote international cooperation through education, science, and culture in the aftermath of World War II.
Although the U.S. helped create the agency, its financial contributions have diminished in recent years — now accounting for about 8% of UNESCO’s budget, compared to roughly 20% before Trump’s first withdrawal in 2017.
