State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce announced on Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization or UNESCO. It's the third time the United States has made such a move. The first instance occurred in 2019 under the first Trump administration.
The Biden administration rejoined it in 2023 and vowed to repay approximately $600 million in dues incurred since the U.S. stopped paying. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that UNESCO, among other United Nations organizations, deserved renewed scrutiny, in large part, due to its anti-Israel and antisemitic stances.
UNESCO frequently uses language that suggests that Israel is occupying Palestine and basically never condemns Hamas. It's even gone as far as to designate Jewish holy sites as “Palestinian World Heritage" sites.
President Ronald Regan also withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO in 1984, stating that it "has extraneously politicized virtually every subject it deals with. It has exhibited hostility toward a free society, especially a free market and a free press, and it has demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion." We rejoined in 2003 under President George W. Bush. In 2011, Hillary Clinton "became the first sitting Secretary of State to visit UNESCO where she helped launch a partnership promoting education for women and girls."
According to Bruce, many factors contributed to the decision, but it ultimately came down to one key consideration: Participating in UNESCO does not align with the United States' "America First" mission. It does nothing to make our country "safer, stronger, and more prosperous."
Today, the United States announced our decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Like many UN organizations, UNESCO strayed from its founding mission. Going forward, U.S. participation in international organizations must make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
— Tammy Bruce (@statedeptspox) July 22, 2025
As a matter of fact, some of UNESCO's goals are simply at odds with our own objectives, like admitting the "State of Palestine" as a member state, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which the State Department says is a "globalist, ideological agenda for international development."
While the globalist and pro-Palestine agendas are troubling, something the State Department press release didn't mention is China's influence on UNESCO. "China has leveraged its influence over UNESCO to advance global standards that are favorable to Beijing’s interests," an unnamed White House official told the New York Post in an exclusive statement. Beijing is the organization's second-largest funder, and several Chinese nationals hold key leadership positions within the organization.
According to White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly, UNESCO is also just plain "woke," supporting "divisive cultural and social causes." According to the Post, this includes an "'anti-racism toolkit' in 2023 and its 2024 'Transforming MEN’talities' initiative, the former of which called on member states to adopt 'anti-racist' policies and compete in a 'race to the top' to be the foremost social justice advocate, answering questions about the history of racism in their jurisdictions and then working to ensure equity."
That ridiculously named initiative focused on activities like how to promote gender equality in video games and how to reshape how men in India thought about gender issues.
The more I learn about UNESCO, the more grateful I am that the Trump administration said buh-bye to this ridiculous organization. I know we say it daily, but how nice is it to have leaders who put the country and its taxpayers first?
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