US Exits 66 International Organisations in Renewed Drive for ‘America First’ Mantra

• Rubio says affected agencies wasteful, ineffective, harmful 

•Outrage trails Trump’s decision

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

In its drive towards realising the ‘America First’ tenet, the Donald Trump administration has announced that it is withdrawing the United States from the membership of 66 international organisations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the list included 31 United Nations (UN) organisations and several agencies committed to countering the global impacts of climate change and international peacebuilding, including the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the Global Counterterrorism Forum and the International Energy Forum. 

Rubio said in a press release that the administration “has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.”

The withdrawals are a result of an executive order issued by Trump less than a month into his second term, which charged Rubio with conducting reviews of all international intergovernmental organisations of which the United States is a member and providing any type of funding or other support.

Some other organisations exited by the Trump administration include: 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact;Global Forum on Cyber Expertise; Global Forum on Migration and Development; Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals, and Sustainable Development as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

They also include: The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies; International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance; International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law; International Renewable Energy Agency and International Solar Alliance.

Some UN organisations from which the US withdrew funding and participation are: UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — Economic Commission for Africa;International Trade Centre; Office of the Special Adviser on Africa; Peacebuilding Commission; Permanent Forum on People of African Descent; UN Democracy Fund; UN Energy; UN University, among others.

According to him, the State Department is continuing to review additional agencies going forward.

“President Trump is clear: 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. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.

“As this list begins to demonstrate, what started as a pragmatic framework of international organisations for peace and cooperation has morphed into a sprawling architecture of global governance, often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests.

“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. We reject inertia and ideology in favour of prudence and purpose. We seek cooperation where it serves our people and will stand firm where it does not,” Rubio pointed out.

But the decision to withdraw from these organisations has drawn responses from some within the international peacebuilding community.

The UN’s Climate Chief and Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Simon Stiell, described the move as a “colossal own goal”.

He said: “While all other nations are stepping forward together, this latest step back from global leadership, climate cooperation and science can only harm the US economy, jobs and living standards, as wildfires, floods, mega-storms and droughts get rapidly worse. It is a colossal own goal which will leave the US less secure and less prosperous.”

“This is a shortsighted, embarrassing and foolish decision,” said Gina McCarthy, who was a top climate adviser to Joe Biden’s White House.

“As the only country in the world not a part of the UNFCCC treaty, the Trump administration is throwing away decades of US climate change leadership and global collaboration. This administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country.”

Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trump’s decision to exit the UNFCCC is an “unforced error” and “self-defeating” as it will further hamper the US’s ability to compete with China, which is increasingly dominant in the world’s burgeoning clean energy technology industries.

“While the Trump administration is abdicating the United States of America’s global leadership, the rest of the world is continuing to shift to cleaner power sources and take climate action,” Bapna said.

The Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation, an independent charity organisation that works closely with the UN to accomplish its global initiatives, struck a more conciliatory tone.

While noting that he doesn’t “agree with all of their choices,” Peter Yeo urged the Trump administration to continue its record of investing in the international community.

“Now that the Admin has completed its review of US participation in the @UN, we urge Pres. Trump and Congress to re-start the flow of funding to those UN programs which have retained US support, building on its past record of productive leadership and collaboration,” Yeo posted on X.

“I deeply regret that the US is further isolating itself by withdrawing from 66 international organisations, including the International Law Commission,” UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism wrote on the social platform X. “This move weakens efforts to forge cooperative global solutions to common human challenges.”