Withdrawals from International Organizations (2025 to 2026)

The United States helped found the United Nations system after World War II and has belonged to hundreds of international organizations, treaties, and commissions, many created by Senate-approved treaties or authorized by Congress. Presidents have left organizations before, including UNESCO in 1984 and 2018, and the Paris climate agreement in 2020, but the scale of withdrawals in 2025 and 2026 was without precedent.

On January 20, 2025, executive orders began withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement. In February 2025 the administration left the UN Human Rights Council and ordered a review of all international organizations, and in July 2025 it announced withdrawal from UNESCO, effective at the end of 2026. The WHO exit took effect on January 22, 2026, and the Paris exit a few days later. A presidential memorandum on January 7, 2026, ordered withdrawal from 66 more organizations, 31 affiliated with the UN and 35 others, including the UN climate change convention and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Supporters said many of these bodies were wasteful, hostile to American interests, or ineffective, and that withdrawal saved money and protected sovereignty. Critics warned that leaving would cede influence to China and others, weaken global health and climate cooperation, and harm American scientists and businesses that rely on international standards. Legal scholars debated whether a President may leave a treaty the Senate approved, such as the 1992 climate convention, without congressional consent, an issue the Supreme Court left unresolved in Goldwater v. Carter in 1979.