Donald Trump withdraws US from UN entities and key climate treaty
By: Dinah Voyles Pulver (USA TODAY)
Now that Trump's war with Venezuela has been panned, it's time for more chaos. Withdrawing the United States from these types of foreign entanglements was a campaign promise. But it is beginning to appear that Trump will only address those campaign promises when he needs a distraction. Left wing Democrats will drown out any unfavorable news with their hyperventilated gaslighting.
BTW, the withdrawals are far more expansive than climate related international organizations, conventions, or treaties. One notable organization Trump is withdrawing from is the Global Forum on Migration and Development.
(The full list is provided in the seeded article.)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Updated Jan. 8, 2026, 8:30 a.m. ET
The United States will withdraw from more than five dozen international collaborations, including treaties and organizations with the United Nations on climate change and the oceans, President Donald Trump announced in a memo on Jan. 7.
Among the organizations the United States will withdraw from are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The list also includes agreements and groups on renewable energy, oceans, piracy, counterterrorism, and empowerment of women.
The 66 groups, treaties, and conventions, including 31 associated with the U.N., are "contrary to the interests of the United States," the memo's title stated. The withdrawals follow up on a review by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Trump's request of all international organizations, conventions, and treaties to which the U.S. belongs or is a party to.
The White House stated the withdrawals "will end American taxpayer funding and involvement in entities that advance globalist agendas over U.S. priorities, or that address important issues inefficiently or ineffectively such that U.S. taxpayer dollars are best allocated in other ways to support the relevant missions," Reuters reported.
The Framework Convention on Climate Change was ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed by former President George H. W. Bush in October 1992. The United States was the first industrialized nation to sign the convention.
At the time, Bush called it the "first step in crucial long-term international efforts to address climate change." The convention committed countries to inventories of all sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, and to establish national climate change programs.
Now the United States will be the only nation in the world that is no longer a party to the framework, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Though the country had already submitted a letter of intent to leave the Paris climate agreement for the second time, the United States has never withdrawn from the convention before, according to the concerned scientists.
The action to withdraw from the framework and the IPCC follows actions taken by the Trump administration in 2025 to downplay climate change, such as an edict that federal employees were not to be involved with the IPCC's next report. The IPCC is considered the leading global group studying climate change.
'Strategic blunder that gives away American advantage'
As reports on 2025's global temperatures are released in the days ahead, major organizations and climate scientists expect it to be either the second or third warmest year on record globally. Several organizations quickly criticized the withdrawals from the international collaborations on climate change and the oceans, saying it will harm U.S. residents and American companies.
Pulling out of the framework convention on climate is "a strategic blunder that gives away American advantage for nothing in return," said David Widawsky, director of WRI US, the World Resources Institute in the United States. "Walking away doesn't just put America on the sidelines — it takes the U.S. out of the arena entirely," Widawski added.
Widawsky said the action will cost American communities and businesses economic ground as other countries take advantage of the "booming clean-energy economy."
The withdrawal from the global climate treaty is "a new low" from the administration, said Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Union of Concerned Scientists climate and energy program. It's another "sign that this authoritarian, anti-science administration is determined to sacrifice people's well-being and destabilize global cooperation," she added.
According to Cleetus, the withdrawal will serve to further "isolate the United States and diminish its standing in the world following a spate of deplorable actions that have already sent our nation's credibility plummeting," jeopardize ties with historical allies, and make the world more unsafe.
Since Trump's inauguration nearly a year ago, he has worked to slash funding for the U.N. and cease collaborations with its Human Rights Council and its cultural agency, UNESCO, Reuters reported. The administration has previously announced plans to leave the World Health Organization.
Contributing: Reuters
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, weather, the environment, and other news. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
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MAGA campaign promises have only become a distraction when Trump needs one. It's a hell of a note that Trump's rapid fire screwups are responsible for implementing MAGA policies. Talk about tail wagging the dog.
Something wrong with this logic? Please be specific.
I did not say there was anything wrong with withdrawing from these international entities and treaties. What I did say is that Trump only falls back on MAGA promises when he paints himself into a corner. Trump has become a feckless, fair weather sponsor of MAGA.
I'm not so sure everything on the list (see the seed) were bad things. There were several entities related to mining and resource development. But I don't know what those entities actually did.
I care about shifting to America First policies. I don't give a shit about Trump. Trump is expendable. It's the policies that matter.
Agreed and my only point really. But the usual dimbulbs will automatically be against it and possibly their own interests, simply because Trump did it.
Isolationism is dangerous but so is letting globalist constantly screw us over.
Trump wants to be a king. Since he is struggling to be proclaimed king of the United States, he is turning his attention to being recognized as king of his international sphere of power. Working with the UN or the European nations doesnt align with him being king. Now you know.
The US is now an outlaw nation that no longer follows the rule of law (or even common sense). Tuck Frump!
So don't vote for him in 28
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