Trump pulls U.S. out of UNESCO for second time. Reasons and reactions

President Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the “woke”and “divisive” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the White House said on Tuesday, repeating a move he took in his first term that was reversed by Joe Biden. 

The withdrawal from the Paris-based agency will take effect at the end of next year.

The move is in line with the Trump administration’s broader “America-first” foreign policy, which includes a deep skepticism of multilateral groups, including the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and the NATO alliance.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said UNESCO “supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for.”

The State Department accused UNESCO of supporting “a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”

It said its decision to admit the Palestinians as a member state was “highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric.”