President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Wednesday that pulls the United States out of dozens of international organizations, including several related to the United Nations.
The order instructs the U.S. withdrawal from 66 international organizations that “no longer serve American interests.” Trump had ordered his administration to review the country’s participation in and funding required for the international organizations.
The White House said that withdrawing from the organizations will end American taxpayer dollars going toward entities that “advance globalist agendas over U.S. priorities.”
Some organizations the United States will no longer be a part of, including climate and migration efforts, were considered by the administration to be “woke” initiatives, The Associated Press reported.
The order will take the U.S. out of 31 U.N.-related entities and 35 separate organizations that are working against the country’s “national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty,” the White House said. Some of the non-U.N. organizations include the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.
Trump pulled U.S. out of organizations on first day in office
It’s the latest in a series of withdrawals for the United States.
On Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an order that pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement. He also ended participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council and canceled any future funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for the Near East.
The White House said it’s because Trump has “prioritized American interests by redirecting focus and resources toward domestic priorities,” including border security, the U.S. military and infrastructure.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared the announcement online, saying Trump is removing the country from “anti-American, useless, or wasteful international organizations.” He said there is an ongoing review of additional organizations the U.S. could pull out from.
“These withdrawals keep a key promise President Trump made to Americans — we will stop subsidizing globalist bureaucrats who act against our interests,” Rubio said. “The Trump Administration will always put America and Americans first.”
Rubio, in a State Department statement, also shared that the administration found that the organizations were “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run,” and more.
“President Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it,” the statement said. “The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”
The United Nations has not yet commented on the new action from the U.S., but in recent remarks, the international organization criticized the Trump administration’s recent operation in Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro, saying it could lead to instability in the country and shared concern for the precedent it will set for how countries work with one another.