Citing political and ideological concerns, the U.S. is withdrawing from UNESCO in 2026.
The United States will once again withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the end of 2026, a State Department spokesperson confirmed in a statement Tuesday.
“Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,” a State Department spokeswoman said in the statement, also adding that “UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”
The statement also cited UNESCO’s decision to admit Palestine as a member as indicative of the UN’s anti-Israel sentiment.
UNESCO first included Palestine as a full member of the organization in 2011. The Obama Administration cut the U.S.’s funding to the agency, enforcing legislation that required the U.S. to stop funding UN agencies that included Palestine, and the first Trump Administration left UNESCO in 2017. The Biden administration rejoined UNESCO in 2023.
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Although the U.S. stopped funding UNESCO in 2011 and left the organization entirely in 2017, the agency designated five sites in the United States to the World Heritage List—most recently in 2023, when the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks were added. Other sites included while funding was suspended include the 20th-century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the San Antonio Missions, the Moravian Church Settlements, and the Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point.
The U.S. had no sites added to the World Heritage List between 1995 and 2010.
Designation as a World Heritage Site brings additional publicity and attracts interest from both U.S. and foreign travelers. Twenty-six sites were added in 2025, although none of the new inscriptions this year were in the United States. World Heritage designations are often used in marketing materials by travel companies to promote the listed sites as travel destinations.
The U.S. contribution to UNESCO is expected to be $75 million for 2025, around 8% of the agency’s total budget. UNESCO has reduced its dependency on U.S. funding in recent years. The agency runs educational programs, promotes sex education, literacy, clean water, and women’s equality. After budget shortfalls caused by the U.S. withdrawal, the agency found revenue sources ranging from other UN member states to private donations to make up the difference.
This is the third time the U.S. has withdrawn from UNESCO since the agency was established in 1945. The Reagan Administration also pulled U.S. membership in the agency in 1984. At that time, the administration took issue with the agency’s political activities, such as a temporary ban on Israel’s participation and then-ballooning costs of maintaining its bureaucracy. The George W. Bush Administration rejoined UNESCO in 2003.
During both withdrawals from UNESCO, the U.S. has remained a non-member observer.
In addition to UNESCO, the Trump administration ended U.S. membership in the World Health Organization (WHO) within hours of the inauguration in January. The following month, it ended participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), citing anti-Israel bias by the agency, a position held by leaders from both parties.
Other UNESCO World Heritage sites in the United States include the Taos Pueblo, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the marine reserve in Hawai‘i called Papahānaumokuākea, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, the Statue of Liberty, and several national parks, including Yosemite, Olympic, Mammoth Cave, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and the Great Smoky Mountains.
World Heritage sites can be removed from the list if they are destroyed or significantly degraded. Sites have not been removed from the list for political reasons, such as whether the UN member state the sites are located in maintains an active membership in UNESCO, which is not required for the agency to consider the addition or maintenance of World Heritage sites.