Trump to Pull US From UNESCO

President Donald Trump is pulling the U.S. out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in a move Rep. Randy Fine says he fully supports. 

“This is an organization that has repeatedly pushed anti-Israel propaganda, from recognizing Palestinian statehood to denying the Jewish connection to holy sites,” Fine, R-Fla., who is Jewish, told The Daily Signal. 

“It has allowed China to expand its influence and promoted woke DEI agendas that have no place in American foreign policy,” Fine said of UNESCO.  

China and UNESCO have what UNESCO refers to as “a stable relationship that is conducive to world peace and prosperity.” In 2022, China became the largest financial backer of UNESCO, according to the Global Policy Journal.  

“‘America First’ means we do not fund global institutions that undermine our values, rewrite history, or threaten the security of our allies,” according to Fine.  

UNESCO is a United Nations organization established to promote education, science, culture, and communication in the name of furthering peace worldwide. 

The Trump administration’s decision to leave UNESCO follows a 90-day review of the organization. The review uncovered, according to the New York Post, that UNESCO engages in diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and has a pro-China and pro-Palestinian bias.  

“UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsize focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our ‘America First’ foreign policy,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday.  

Bruce called “UNESCO’s decision to admit the ‘state of Palestine’ as a member state” of the organization “highly problematic” and “contrary to U.S. policy,” adding the action “contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”  

Moving forward, “U.S. participation in international organizations will focus on advancing American interests with clarity and conviction,” she said.  

Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCO, said Tuesday that the U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO “contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism, and may affect first and foremost our many partners in the United States of America.” But Azoulay added that the group “has prepared” for the U.S. leaving the organization, since the move was anticipated.

The U.S. will officially withdraw from UNESCO at the end of 2026, but this won’t be the first time the U.S. has pulled out of the organization. President Ronald Reagan withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO in 1984 due to concerns over corruption within the organization. The U.S. rejoined under George W. Bush’s administration in 2003. America again pulled out of UNESCO during Trump’s first administration, but rejoined under President Joe Biden’s administration.  

With this now being the third time the U.S. has pulled out of UNESCO, Eugene Kontorovich, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow specializing in international law and issues related to Israel, says U.S. leaders need to “figure out a way to make this permanent.” 

“Congress should repeal, formally, its 1946 authorization for U.S. membership [in UNESCO],” Kontorovich said, “so that a future Democratic president can’t just merry-go-round us back in.”  

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