Trump should quit UNESCO again
Less than two weeks into his second term, President Trump ordered a review of U.S. membership in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO, based on how it supports American interests and “any anti-Semitism or anti-Israel sentiment within the organization.” A fair review would recommend the U.S. end its membership.
In his first term, Trump announced that the U.S. would leave, sanction or terminate U.S. involvement in several international agreements and organizations, ranging from the Paris Agreement to the World Health Organization. Former President Joe Biden reversed these actions only to see Trump reimpose them in the first few weeks of his second term.
A modest exception to this pattern is UNESCO, from which Trump withdrew in his first term, citing “continuing anti-Israel bias,” among other reasons. Biden rejoined UNESCO, but Trump, instead of withdrawing after his inauguration, ordered a review of the merits of U.S. membership.
Trump was right to withdraw from UNESCO in his first term, and he should do so again. While the organization’s mission is to promote the exchange of ideas and culture between nations, it has too often been mismanaged and corrupted by political agendas harmful to U.S. interests.
This same concern led Ronald Reagan to withdraw from UNESCO 40 years ago. According to the State Department, the withdrawal was triggered by “a growing disparity between U.S. foreign policy and UNESCO goals.” More specifically, UNESCO was banning Israel from its activities, seeking to impose global press standards that the U.S. considered an invitation to censorship, and adopting budget increases over U.S. objections.
George W. Bush rejoined UNESCO in 2003, declaring that the organization had reformed. Although reforms had been adopted, political considerations weighed heavily — the decision coincided with international criticism of the Iraq War and U.S. efforts to secure U.N. support in Iraq.
UNESCO’s anti-Israel bias was never resolved, even after the U.S. rejoined. UN Watch reports that, while the U.S. was a member between 2009 and 2017, “UNESCO adopted 60 resolutions against Israel; 6 on Crimea; 4 on Iraq; 2 on Syria; and none on Iran, Sudan, North Korea, or any other country in the world.”
UNESCO aided Palestinian efforts to downplay or deny Israeli heritage to historical sites. For instance, Israel suspended ties in 2016 after UNESCO passed a resolution criticizing Israeli policy that referred to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, only by its Arabic name. These actions led Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), the current House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, to oppose U.S. taxes “funding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment.”
The deepest example of anti-Israel bias, however, is UNESCO’s decision to grant the “State of Palestine” full membership in 2011. Longstanding U.S. policy opposes Palestinian statehood and membership in international organizations absent mutual recognition and a peace agreement with Israel. UNESCO membership undermines prospects for peace by giving the Palestinians international standing without recognizing Israel.
UNESCO made this decision over the strong U.S. objections and warnings that it would result in an immediate freeze on all U.S. funding, due to two laws enacted in the 1990s barring contributions to U.N. organizations that afford the Palestinians the same standing as member states. The laws were intended to use the threat of loss of U.S. funds to dissuade U.N. agencies from granting the Palestinians full membership.
Obama administration efforts from 2011 to 2016 to waive the restriction were blocked by bipartisan opposition in Congress because it “would undermine our interests and our ally Israel by providing a green light for other UN bodies to admit ‘Palestine’ as a member.” As a result, the U.S. accrued $619 million in arrears (unpaid dues) to UNESCO.
President Trump announced in 2017 that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing an anti-Israel bias and to stop the accrual of arrears. He officially withdrew in 2019 after the required one-year notification period.
Biden reversed this decision and rejoined UNESCO in 2023, but only after Congress passed a temporary waiver — it expires in 2025 unless extended by Congress — to the laws that prohibit U.S. payments. It is unclear how much the U.S. provided UNESCO since it rejoined, but Biden intended to pay about $150 million in arrears annually in addition to the 22 percent to UNESCO’s annual regular budget (about $75 million) it must pay each year.
For 2025, UNESCO billed the U.S. $223 million. What benefit would the U.S. receive in return for this hefty annual payment, should Trump decide to stay in UNESCO? Not much.
UNESCO is principally a facilitator, not an implementer. UNESCO’s 2024–2025 regular budget devoted roughly 80 percent of the budget to staff, headquarters costs, management, conferences, travel and related costs. UNESCO projects and programs are funded overwhelmingly with voluntary funding, often implemented by third parties or governments, that could be applied to those goals bilaterally or through other international organizations.
Hoping to entice the U.S. not to withdraw again, UNESCO is touting its role in Holocaust education. The problem is, while the program exists, it is hardly a priority. UNESCO’s budget does not mention Holocaust education and mentions “antisemitism” only once. Moreover, the modest Holocaust education effort, involving only a few million dollars and a handful of staff, is jointly led by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and could continue regardless of U.S. membership in UNESCO.
While some UNESCO anti-Israel resolutions have been watered down in recent years, anti-Israel sentiment remains strong. A 2023 UNESCO resolution after Oct. 7, 2023 demanded an immediate ceasefire and did not condemn Hamas for the terrorist attack or for misusing civilians or schools as shields. The UNESCO Executive Board also included an agenda item on “Occupied Palestine” that year.
When it rejoined UNESCO, the Biden administration argued it was necessary to counter Chinese influence, especially over guidelines for ethic and artificial intelligence. But these ethical recommendations are not binding, and China will certainly not abide by restrictions it finds onerous. The U.S. presence in UNESCO will not change this fact.
America’s interests in UNESCO are not critical, as Reagan and Trump previously concluded. The minor benefits of UNESCO membership are outweighed by the consequences of U.S. support for an organization that wrongly grants full membership to the Palestinians without recognition of Israel. Unless this changes, Trump should again withdraw from UNESCO.
Brett D. Schaefer is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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