USA will quit UNESCO

As a reason for its latest withdrawal

from a global body,"the White House cites

UNESCO’s focus on ‘divisive social and cultural causes’...".

An article by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris 'Trump pulls US out of Unesco in blow for UN culture and education agency' (The Guardian 22 Jul 2025) as Donald Trump continues to pull an increasingly isolationist US out of international institutions. The United Nations’ culture and education agency UNESCO was founded after the Second World War to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science and culture, an initiative that should not be controversial.

Tammy Bruce 

The US State Department apparently currently now has other ideas:

“Unesco works 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,”

according to Tammy Bruce, a state department spokesperson. Donald Trump's pick of Tammy Bruce for State spokesperson continues his trend of turning to the cable network for positions in his current administration

The US withdrawal, to take effect in December 2026, will be a blow to UNESCO’s work on education, culture and combating hate speech.

The US was a founding member of UNESCO in 1945, but this latest departure will be the third time it has quit. Washington first withdrew in 1983 under Ronald Reagan, whose administration said the global organisation had anti-western bias and “has extraneously politicised virtually every subject it deals with”. It rejoined under George W Bush in 2003, with the White House saying it was happy with Unesco reforms. Trump pulled the US out of Unesco in 2017, during his first term as president. His administration cited what it called “mounting arrears, the need for fundamental reform in the organisation, and continuing anti-Israel bias”. The US returned to UNESCO in 2023 under Joe Biden. The Biden administration said it was crucial to rejoin in order to counter “Chinese influence”. Beijing had become the organisation’s biggest financial backer in Washington’s absence. As a condition of readmission, the US agreed to pay about $619m in unpaid dues and make contributions to programmes supporting education access initiatives in Africa, Holocaust remembrance and journalists’ safety. In 2011, UNESCO voted to admit Palestine, which is not formally recognised by the US or Israel as a UN member state. The Barack Obama White House had cut UNESCO contributions, resulting in the US owing millions in arrears to the organisation.