The US has said that it will leave the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, accusing it of supporting woke, divisive cultural and social causes. UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay described the decision as regrettable but anticipated.
The move is the latest step in the Trump administration’s efforts to cut ties with international bodies, after removing the US from the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as cutting funding for foreign relief efforts.
UNESCO has 194 member states around the world, and is best known for listing world heritage sites. The US’s decision will take effect from December 2026. In 2017, during his first presidency, Trump pulled the US out of UNESCO, but the decision was later reversed under Joe Biden’s administration.
In a statement, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce argued that membership in UNESCO was not in the US’s “national interest” and called the agency’s mission “divisive”.
She then pointed to several points of discord, including Palestine’s participation in UNESCO and alleged “anti-Israel” sentiment in its ranks. Palestine has been a member since 2011, but the US does not recognise it as a sovereign state.
“To admit the ‘State of Palestine’ as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organisation,” Bruce said.
Bruce also denounced UNESCO’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which include calls to reduce poverty, increase gender equity and fight climate change. Those goals, she said, were evidence of “a globalist, ideological agenda”.