The Trump administration has decided to withdraw the United States from scores of international organisations, including the UN population agency and the UN framework that underpins global climate negotiations, marking a deeper step away from multilateral cooperation.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order halting US backing for 66 international organisations, agencies and commissions. The move follows a comprehensive review of US participation in and funding for global bodies, including those linked to the United Nations, the White House said.
A significant number of the affected entities are UN-affiliated agencies, commissions and advisory groups working on climate change, labor rights, migration and related issues.
The administration has labeled many of these efforts as tied to diversity-focused or “woke” agendas.
The list also includes several non-UN bodies, such as the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.
“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
The withdrawals come at a time when the administration has taken assertive foreign policy steps that have unsettled both allies and rivals, including military actions and threats, such as the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and statements suggesting a desire to take control of Greenland.
The decision builds on an existing pattern of disengagement from global institutions. Earlier, the administration suspended support for bodies including the World Health Organisation, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO.
It has also adopted a selective approach to funding the UN system, choosing to pay for agencies and operations it believes align with Trump’s priorities while cutting off those seen as contrary to US interests.
“I think what we’re seeing is the crystallisation of the US approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of UN affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”
The shift represents a sharp departure from how previous Republican and Democratic administrations engaged with the UN and has forced the organisation, already undergoing internal reforms, to implement staffing reductions and program cutbacks.
Several independent non-governmental organisations, including those working closely with the UN, have reported shutting down projects following the administration’s earlier decision to significantly reduce foreign aid through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Despite the broad pullback, officials in the Trump administration maintain that they still recognise the value of the UN.
They say US funding should instead be directed toward strengthening American influence in key UN standard-setting bodies where competition with China is intense, such as the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organisation and the International Labor Organisation.
