US President Donald Trump is withdrawing the country from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organization (UNESCO), the State Department in Washington has confirmed.

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NTB

The New York Post wrote about the matter earlier Thursday, and now comes the official confirmation.

– President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO, which supports woke and divisive cultural and social views that are completely incompatible with the common sense policies that Americans voted for in November, says deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly to the newspaper.

The Trump administration put the United States' participation in UNESCO under scrutiny in February, allegedly due to anti-Semitic sentiments. The organization's diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were also later singled out for criticism.

DEI measures have been an important target for the Trump administration, which has, among other things, worked to remove the contributions of minorities and women from the narrative of American war history.

The United States also believes that UNESCO is anti-Israel and points to UNESCO's admission of Palestine as a member in 2011, a decision they say is problematic.

"I regret President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from UNESCO," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.

She further says that the withdrawal will take effect at the end of 2026, and strongly rejects accusations that the organization is anti-Israel.

– These claims contradict the reality of UNESCO's work, especially in Holocaust education and the fight against anti-Semitism, she says.

Trump also attempted to withdraw the United States from UNESCO in 2017, but his successor Joe Biden rejoined the United States from the organization in 2023. Ronald Reagan also withdrew the United States from UNESCO in the 1980s.