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A decision to pull out of UNESCO was the latest move by the Trump administration to cut ties with international organizations.
July 22, 2025Updated 9:51 a.m. ET
The United States said Tuesday that it would withdraw from UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, the latest move by the Trump administration to cut ties with international organizations.
The State Department announced the move, which will take effect at the end of next year. It reflects President Trump’s deep mistrust and distaste of multilateralism and international institutions, especially those connected to the United Nations.
“Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Ms. Bruce accused the organization of promoting “divisive social and cultural causes” and of maintaining an “outsized focus on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”
President Trump has already taken the United States out of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The decision to leave UNESCO came after years of rocky relations between successive American administrations and the organization, which is headquartered in Paris. The United States cut funding for UNESCO under the Obama administration after it voted to include Palestine as a full member, and then pulled out completely during President Trump’s first term.
