The State Department said Tuesday that the U.S. will withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the end of next year over its advancement of “divisive social and cultural causes”—the second time President Donald Trump has pulled out and a decision that reflects the U.S.’s broader turbulence with the U.N. agency.

In 2011, the Obama administration cut U.S. funding to UNESCO after it admitted Palestine as a full member in accordance with legislation that bans U.S. contributions to any U.N. agency that grants Palestine membership. At the time, UNESCO relied on the U.S. for what was roughly $70 million per year—22% of the agency’s budget. The U.S. lost its voting rights at the organization in 2013 after not funding the agency for two years. Israel announced it would pull out of the organization around the same time as Trump in 2017. At the time of the Trump administration’s withdrawal, the U.S. owed UNESCO up to $550 million. The Biden administration rejoined UNESCO in 2023 and requested $150 million of the total budget to go toward UNESCO each year until the debt—then a total of $619 million—was paid off. Biden’s decision didn’t address Palestine’s status as a UNESCO member.

In a statement Tuesday, Azoulay said that although she deeply regrets Trump’s decision to pull out of UNESCO and that it “contradicts the fundamental principles of multilateralism,” the agency “has prepared for it.” Azoulay said UNESCO has undergone structural changes since 2018 and widened its sources of funding—of which she said the U.S. supplies 8% of the agency’s total budget. “The reasons put forward by the United States to withdraw from the Organization are the same as seven years ago even though the situation has changed profoundly, political tensions have receded, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism,” Azoulay said.

The U.S.’s withdrawal came after Trump issued an executive order in February mandating that Secretary of State Marco Rubio review UNESCO and other international organizations that promote “radical or anti-American” sentiment. The Trump administration cited Palestine’s membership as “highly problematic,” and White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Politico that UNESCO “supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November.” The State Department called the agency’s focus on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals “a globalist, ideological agenda for international development.” The 17 goals—which include no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education and gender equality among others—were adopted by all U.N. member states, including the U.S., in 2015, with hopes of achieving those goals by 2030. UNESCO itself aims to strengthen “our shared humanity” and focuses on setting standards for member states on global issues like climate change, artificial intelligence and quality education.

Since taking office, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), citing WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and the UNHRC’s alleged bias against Israel. Trump’s February executive order also cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to Palestinians. Earlier in July, the Trump administration officially shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) after promising to dismantle the agency when Trump took office.