White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly has confirmed the decision of the Trump administration to withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for a third time as its goals fail to fall in line with the policies and the vision of the United States under the rule of President Trump.
The White House official in an engagement with credible news sources explained that the bloc supported a number of ideologies which do not fall in line with the polices which were promised to Americans during the pre-election campaigns. “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,”
News reports further state that withdrawal of the United States which takes effect in December 2026, comes as no surprise to UNESCO officials, who had anticipated such a move following the specific review ordered by the Trump administration earlier this year. They also expected that Trump would pull out again since the return of the US in 2023 had been promoted by a political rival, former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the US would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later. The US and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.
The United States previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance the interests of the Soviet Union. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush’s presidency.
UNESCO emerges as the latest out of a series of bloc exits orchestrated by President Trump in 2025, which include the World Health Organization, Paris Agreement & UNFCCC climate, JETP/IPG climate partnership, UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), U.S. International Agencies.
