The United States announced Tuesday it will again pull out of the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural agency because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias, only two years after rejoining.
“President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO – which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November,” White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly told the New York Post.
UNESCO and the White House did not immediately confirm the US move.
The move, which will take place at the end of December 2026, is a blow to the Paris-based agency, founded after World War II to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture.
President Donald Trump had already pulled out from UNESCO during his first term in addition to quitting the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, a global climate change accord and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal
Joe Biden reversed those decisions after taking office in 2021, returning the US to UNESCO, the WHO and the climate agreement.
With Trump now back in the White House, the US is once again withdrawing from these global bodies.
UNESCO is best known for designating World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon in the US and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
The US initially joined UNESCO at its founding in 1945 but withdrew for the first time in 1984 in protest against alleged financial mismanagement and perceived anti-US bias, returning almost 20 years later in 2003 under President George W. Bush, who then said the agency had undertaken needed reforms.
UNESCO's full name is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The United States provides about 8 percent of UNESCO's total budget, down from about 20 percent at the time Trump first pulled the United States out of the agency.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
English (US) · 