US President Donald Trump has ordered the country’s withdrawal from 66 global organisations.
In a press statement issued Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision was taken in furtherance of Executive Order 14199, following an administration-wide review of international organisations receiving U.S. participation or funding.
According to Rubio, the Trump administration concluded that many of these institutions are redundant, mismanaged, unnecessary, or actively working against U.S. interests. Others, he said, have become platforms for ideological agendas that undermine national sovereignty and divert American resources with little tangible benefit.
“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,” Rubio said.
The administration argues that billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money have flowed for years to international bodies that deliver few results while advancing policies at odds with the Trump administration’s priorities. Rubio said those days are now over.
Trump directed all executive departments and agencies to take immediate steps to effect the country’s withdrawal from the organisations as soon as possible.
Of the 66 organisations, 31 are United Nations (UN) entities while 35 are non-UN affiliated.
Notable among the organisations include the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which, according to the White House, operate contrary to America’s national interests.
Upon returning to office last January, Trump initiated the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Weeks later, he signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and prohibiting any future funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for the Near East (UNRWA).
UNFCCC addresses global climate efforts and coordinates international action on climate change through annual COP meetings and agreements like the Paris Accord. Trump has repeatedly labelled climate change a “scam.”
UNFPA promotes access to family planning, maternal healthcare, and efforts to end gender-based violence and harmful practices like child marriage. Historically, the US provided substantial funding to UNFPA for programmes in over 150 countries.
EU Slams Trump On Withdrawal Order
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty was slammed Thursday by the EU, which vowed to keep tackling the crisis with other nations.
The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the UNFCCC “underpins global climate action” and brings nations together in the collective fight against the crisis.
“The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn.
“We will unequivocally continue to support international climate research, as the foundation of our understanding and work. We will also continue to work on international climate cooperation.”
Trump, who has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels, has openly scorned the scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet, deriding climate science as a “hoax.”
His administration sent no representative to the most recent UN climate summit in Brazil in November, which is held every year under the auspices of the UNFCCC.
Teresa Ribera, the EU’s vice-president for the clean transition, said the Trump administration “doesn’t care” about the environment, health or the suffering of people.
Fight Looms
The UNFCCC was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 and approved later that year by the US Senate during George H.W. Bush’s presidency.
“The US withdrawal from the UN climate framework is a heavy blow to global climate action, fracturing hard-won consensus,” Li Shuo, a climate expert at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told AFP.
The US Constitution allows presidents to enter treaties “provided two-thirds of Senators present concur,” but it is silent on the process for withdrawing from them — a legal ambiguity that could invite court challenges.
Trump has already withdrawn from the landmark Paris climate accord since returning to office, just as he did during his first term from 2017–2021, in a move later reversed by his successor, Democratic president Joe Biden.
Exiting the underlying treaty could introduce additional legal uncertainty around any future US effort to rejoin.
Jean Su, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP: “Pulling out of the UNFCCC is a whole order of magnitude different from pulling out of the Paris Agreement.”
“It’s our contention that it’s illegal for the President to unilaterally pull out of a treaty that required two-thirds of the Senate vote,” she continued. “We are looking at legal options to pursue that line of argument.”
Progressive Ideology
California Governor Gavin Newsom, an outspoken critic of Trump who is widely seen as a presidential contender, said in a statement, “Our brainless president is surrendering America’s leadership on the world stage and weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future — creating a leadership vacuum that China is already exploiting.”
The memo also directs the United States to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science, alongside other climate-related organisations, including the International Renewable Energy Agency, UN Oceans, and UN Water.
As in his first term, Trump has also withdrawn the United States from UNESCO — the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — which Washington had rejoined under Biden.
Trump has likewise pulled the US out of the World Health Organization and sharply reduced foreign aid.
Other prominent bodies named in the memo include the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement the organizations were driven by “progressive ideology” and were actively seeking to “constrain American sovereignty.”
“From DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) mandates to ‘gender equity’ campaigns to climate orthodoxy, many international organizations now serve a globalist project,” he said.
The 66 organisations identified in the review will lose U.S. participation and support, while additional withdrawals may follow as the review process continues.
“These institutions have been captured by actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own,” Rubio said, describing them as threats to America’s sovereignty, freedoms, and economic prosperity.
Rejection Of Global Governance And ‘Progressive Ideology’
Rubio framed the withdrawals as part of a broader ideological reset. He said what began decades ago as a practical system for international cooperation has evolved into a “sprawling architecture of global governance” increasingly detached from the interests of sovereign nations.
He criticised international organisations for promoting initiatives tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender equity campaigns, and climate policy, which he described as elements of a globalist project rooted in what he called the failed “End of History” worldview.
According to Rubio, these agendas are advanced by elite networks within the international NGO ecosystem — a system he referred to as the “multilateral NGO-plex.” He linked the withdrawals to the administration’s recent moves to dismantle that ecosystem, including the closure of USAID.
America First, Selective Cooperation
While emphasising that the U.S. is not retreating from diplomacy entirely, Rubio said Washington will now engage internationally only where cooperation delivers clear benefits to Americans.
“We will not continue expending resources, diplomatic capital, and the legitimising weight of our participation in institutions that are irrelevant to or in conflict with our interests,” he said.
The administration, Rubio added, is rejecting what it sees as inertia and ideological conformity in favour of “prudence and purpose.”
What Comes Next
Federal agencies have been directed to implement the withdrawals, while the State Department continues reviewing other international organisations under Executive Order 14199. Additional exits could be announced in the coming months.
The move represents one of the most far-reaching restructurings of U.S. engagement with multilateral institutions in modern history — and signals a renewed commitment by the Trump administration to an America-first approach to global cooperation.
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