The United States will leave 66 international organizations as Trump withdraws from global cooperation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N. population agency and the U.N. treaty establishing international climate negotiations, as the United States retreats further from global cooperation.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies and committees, following his administration’s review of engagement and funding for all international organizations, including those associated with the United Nations, according to a White House statement.

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Most of the targets are agencies, committees, and advisory committees associated with the United Nations that focus on climate, labor, immigration, and other issues that the Trump administration has designated as meeting diversity and “woke” initiatives. Other non-UN organizations on the list include 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 scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, and mismanaged, and have been captured by the interests of actors who advance their own agendas that conflict with ours, or pose a threat to our country’s sovereignty, freedoms, and overall prosperity,” the State Department said in a statement.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from organizations that promote cooperation between countries to address global challenges comes at a time when his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have alarmed allies and adversaries alike, including arresting Venezuelan authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and signaling intent to seize Greenland.

This is the latest American withdrawal from global agencies

The administration has previously suspended support from agencies such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations for Palestine refugees known as UNRWA, the UN Human Rights Council, and the UN cultural agency UNESCO, taking a more selective approach to paying its dues to the global body, selecting operations and agencies they believe align with Trump’s agenda and those that no longer serve American interests.

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“I think what we are seeing is the crystallization of the American approach to multilateralism, which is my way or the highway,” said Daniel Forte, head of UN affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of the desire for international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”

It marked a major shift from the way previous administrations — Republican and Democratic alike — had dealt with the United Nations, and forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal review, to respond with a series of staff and program cuts.

Several independent non-governmental agencies – some of which work with the United Nations – have indicated the closure of several projects due to the decision made by the US administration last year to reduce foreign aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Despite the massive shift, US officials, including Trump himself, say they have seen the potential of the UN and want instead to focus taxpayer money on expanding American influence in several UN standard-setting initiatives where there is competition with China, such as the International Telecommunication Union, International Maritime Organization and International Labor Organization.

International organizations from which the United States departs

Withdrawing from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the United States from international organizations focused on climate and addressing climate change.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a 1992 agreement between 198 countries to provide financial support for climate change activities in developing countries, is the core treaty of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump – who calls climate change a hoax – withdrew from this agreement shortly after regaining the White House.

Gina McCarthy, former White House national climate adviser, called the move a “shortsighted, embarrassing and foolish decision.”

“As the only country in the world that is not part of the UNFCCC, the Trump administration is undoing decades of American leadership on climate change and global cooperation,” McCarthy, who co-chairs America Is All In, a coalition of U.S. states and cities on climate, said in a statement. “This administration is losing our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions that would strengthen our economy and protect us from the costly disasters that wreak havoc on our country.”

Climate change is to blame for a rise in deadly and costly extreme weather, including floods, droughts, wildfires, heavy rainfall and dangerous heat, leading scientists say.

Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who heads the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions, said a U.S. withdrawal could hamper global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases because it “gives other countries an excuse to delay their actions and commitments.”

It will also be difficult to achieve meaningful progress on climate change without cooperation from the United States, one of the world’s largest emitters and economies, experts said.

The UN population agency, which provides sexual and reproductive health around the world, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition, and Trump himself cut funding for the agency during his first term in office. He and other GOP officials accused the agency of engaging in “coercive abortion practices” in countries such as China.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding to the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support the GOP’s claims.

Other organizations and agencies from which the United States will withdraw include the Carbon-Free Energy Agreement, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Inter-American Institute of Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts and Cultural Agencies, and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.

The State Department said additional reviews are underway.

Al-Amiri reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writer Tammy Weber reported from Vinton, Michigan.