After President Trump signed an Executive Order for the U.S. to withdraw from 66 international organizations including 31 U.N.-related agencies, the U.S. Department of State announced on social media: “We are rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism that treats the American taxpayer as the world’s underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance. President Trump’s withdrawal shows that the era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over.”
The announcement includes a link to a Substack article by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio entitled ‘Ending the Charade of Wasteful International Organizations.’
We are rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism that treats the American taxpayer as the world’s underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance.
President Trump’s withdrawal shows that the era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over.…
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 10, 2026
U.S. Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) replied with a photo of conservative isolationist Pat Buchanan and wrote: “A republic, not an empire!”
Liz Truss, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 50 days in 2022, replied in favor of the Trump administration’s decision and wrote: “The model has failed. The US needs to take the next step. The United Nations building in New York should be closed down.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted in response to the withdrawals that the U.S. is under legal obligation to contribute to the U.N.’s regular budget, which is funded by its 193 member nations, each paying a percentage based on the size of their respective economies.
(The U.S. is supposed to pay 22 percent. If a member does not pay for two full years, it loses its vote in the General Assembly. The U.N. budget for 2025 was approximately $3.72 billion.)
“The charter is not à la carte,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Guterres, said. “We’re not going to renegotiate the charter.”