The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will withdraw from more than 60 international organizations, including the United Nations’ population agency and its treaty that establishes international climate negotiations.
“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,” the State Department said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The White House reported that the U.S. will pull back from the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
“I think what we’re seeing is the crystallization of the U.S. approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, the head of U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press. “It’s a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”
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Among the withdrawals announced was U.S. involvement in the 34-year-old United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a voluntary pact among 195 countries which has long served as the basis for nations to coordinate their response to global climate change and formed the legal foundation for the Paris climate accord.
Trump withdrew from the Paris accord as one of his first actions during his first administration, beginning a four-year withdrawal process that officially went into effect in 2020. Former president Joe Biden rejoined the Climate agreement shortly after his inauguration in 2021, which was ultimately reversed by a 2025 executive order shortly after Trump re-assumed office.
In the memorandum released Wednesday evening, Trump wrote that the list of organizations came in response to a February executive order directing the secretary of state to review all international organization memberships to find those “contrary to the interests of the United States.”
“After deliberating with my Cabinet, have determined that it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support to the organizations listed,” Trump wrote in the memo.
Other groups the U.S. is withdrawing from include the U.N. Democracy Fund, International Law Commission, International Trade Centre, Peacebuilding Commission and offices of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict, Sexual Violence in Conflict and General Violence Against Children.
Previously the Trump administration withdrew its membership in agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
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