On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of several United Nations bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and initiating a review of U.S. financial contributions to the organization.
The order specifies the U.S. withdrawal from the UNHRC and the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), and it will evaluate U.S. participation in UNESCO.
These actions were taken in response to what White House staff secretary Will Scharf referred to as “anti-American bias” within the UN agencies.
Read Also: China Retaliates With Tariffs On US Goods After Trump’s Move
The 47-member UN Human Rights Council is made up of members elected for three-year terms by the General Assembly.
The U.S. concluded its current term on December 31 and now holds observer status.
The executive order is expected to sever U.S. involvement in the council’s activities, including its reviews of countries’ human rights records.
The order also mandates a review of U.S. engagement with the UN, focusing on the imbalance in funding contributions from different countries, as noted by Scharf.
Trump emphasized the “tremendous potential” of the UN but criticized its management and U.S. funding contributions, stating that the U.S. shoulders an unfair share of the financial burden.
Trump has consistently opposed the U.S.’s financial contributions to multilateral bodies, urging other countries to increase their support, particularly within NATO.
UNRWA, the primary aid agency for Palestinians, serves millions of people displaced by the conflict in Gaza.
The U.S. had previously halted its funding of UNRWA in January 2024 under President Joe Biden’s administration, following accusations from Israel that 12 agency employees were connected to Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.
Investigations into the agency found no evidence to support the claims, and other donors resumed their support.
Earlier in his term, Trump also withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and initiated the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, mirroring actions from his first term, which ended in 2021.