Trump considers that the UN agency supports cultural and social causes “Woke”
SAO PAULO, SP (Folhapress)-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the UN Culture and Education Agency, on Tuesday, repeating a measure of his first term that had been reversed in the government of Democrat Joe Biden.
The departure of the agency, based in Paris and founded after World War II to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science and culture, will come into force on December 31, 2026.
“President Trump decided to remove the US from UNESCO, which supports cultural and social causes Woke [como a direita vem chamando pejorativamente pautas ligadas à esquerda] And divisive, totally misaligned with common sense policies that Americans voted in November, ”said White House spokesman Anna Kelly.
The State Department also said that staying at UNESCO was not of national interest, accusing it of “a globalist and ideological agenda for international development in disagreement with our foreign policy of ‘America First’ [EUA em primeiro lugar]”.
UNESCO chief, French Audrey Azoulay, said she deeply regrets Trump’s decision, but the measure was expected and, therefore, the agency prepared themselves diversifying her sources of financing to receive only about 8% of her Washington budget.
UNESCO was one of several international bodies from which Trump withdrew during its first term, along with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Human Rights Council. Upon returning to the White House in January, he restored these measures.
Israel greeted the decision-because the US State Department again cited the admission of Palestine as the agency’s member state in 2011 as one of the reasons for the measure. The first time the US left the agency in 2019, the measure was announced in conjunction with Tel Aviv.
UNESCO employees, in turn, say that all relevant statements of the agency have been agreed with Israel and Palestinians in the last eight years.
“The reasons presented by the US to withdraw are the same as seven years ago, although the situation has changed deeply, political tensions have decreased and UNESCO today is a rare forum for multilateralism consensus,” said Azoulay. “These accusations also contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and in the fight against anti -Semitism.”
According to diplomats, the feeling at UNESCO was that the withdrawal was inevitable for political reasons, given that Biden had retreated from Trump’s action and promised to pay the delays.
UNESCO, whose full name is the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture, is mainly known for designating world heritage. The list aims to preserve places ranging from the Grand Canyon, USA, to the ancient city of Palmira, Syria – 25 places in Brazil, such as the city of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, and the Historic Center of Salvador, in Bahia.
However, they are also UNESCO’s functions to protect press freedom and promote sex education and gender equality in the world.
Trump was not the first to remove the country from UNESCO. The US initially joined the agency at its foundation in 1945, but in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan ended the adhesion, stating that the agency was corrupt and pro-soviet. In 2003, under President George W. Bush (2001-2009), Washington returned to the agency stating that the necessary reforms had been made.
