The United States will leave the United Nations Culture and Education Agency, alias UNESCO. President Donald Trump continues to withdraw his country from international institutions which he has been criticizing for a long time.
This decision is a blow for the agency based in Paris, founded after the Second World War to promote peace through international cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture.
Emmanuel Macron assured UNESCO of his “unwavering support”. “The withdrawal of the United States will not weaken our commitment alongside those who have this fight,” he added.
Unfactible support for UNESCO, a universal protector of science, ocean, education, culture and world heritage. The withdrawal of the United States will not weaken our commitment alongside those who have this fight.
– Emmanuel Macron (@emmanuelmacron) July 22, 2025
The New York Post cites a White House official who talks about an institution that is too “Woke”. “The continuation of the United States’s participation in UNESCO is not in the national interest,” said state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, believing that the agency has been biased against Israel and promotes “divisive” causes.
In 2017, Donald Trump had already withdrawn his UNESCO country when he came to power. Joe Biden had canceled this decision.
UNESCO regrets this decision
UNESCO Audrey Azoulay’s director of UNESCO Azoulay immediately reacted and said “deeply regret” the decision of US President Donald Trump. “As regrettable as it was, this announcement was expected and Unesco prepared for it,” said Audrey Azoulay in a press release.
The spokesperson for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said that the continuation of the United States’s participation in UNESCO was “not in the national interest”
“UNESCO is working to promote cleavage social and cultural causes” and defends “an ideological and globalist roadmap for international development, in contradiction with our foreign policy America First (America first)”, she argued in a press release.
“UNESCO’s decision to admit Palestine’s state as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to the policy of the United States, and has contributed to the proliferation of discourse hostile to Israel within the organization,” added Tammy Bruce.
Effective withdrawal on December 31, 2026
The American withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2026, she said. Shortly after his return to the White House, Donald Trump signed a decree formalizing the end of the United States’s commitment in several UN bodies in February.
This decree also aimed to “review the American involvement in UNESCO”, because of its “anti -American bias”, according to a close adviser to the president.
This examination was carried out by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in coordination with the US active ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea.
According to the decree, he had to assess “the way UNESCO supports the interests of the United States and if it does”, and also understand “an analysis of any anti-Semitism or anti-Israeli feeling within the organization”.
The United States had reintegrated UNESCO in 2023 after an absence of four and a half years, following Donald Trump’s decision in 2017 to leave the organization, at the time accused of expensive management but also already showing an anti-Israeli bias.
