The United States has announced plans to withdraw from UNESCO by the end of 2026, just two years after rejoining the United Nations cultural agency.
“Today, the United States informed Director-General Audrey Azoulay of its decision to withdraw from UNESCO,” said State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce in a statement.
The statement added that continued participation in the agency “is not in the national interest of the United States.”
The decision follows President Donald Trump’s directive, issued in early February shortly after beginning his second term, to reassess U.S. engagement and financial contributions to the United Nations.
At the time, Trump said the UN had “tremendous potential” but “it’s not being well run.”
The UN Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organisation (UNESCO) is tasked with promoting cooperation across those sectors and is best known for its World Heritage list, which includes sites recognised for their special cultural, historical or natural significance.
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In the statement, the State Department accused the organisation of working “to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”
“UNESCO’s decision to admit the ‘State of Palestine’ as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organisation.”
Trump first pulled the U.S. from the cultural agency during his first term in 2018, before the country rejoined under the Biden administration in 2023.
World Heritage Sites in the United States include Yellowstone National Park, Statue of Liberty and the 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
