(Radio Iowa) – The leader of an Iowa City nonprofit does -not- expect any local impact as President Trump has ordered the United States to again pull out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. Iowa City is a designated City of Literature under UNESCO and program manager John Kenyon says the community’s international status should stay intact. “A city needs to be part of a country that is a member of UNESCO for it to be designated,” Kenyon says, “but then, once you have the designation, that relationship is then between the city and UNESCO.”

In 2008, Iowa City became the first place in America designated as a City of Literature. The U.S. also exited UNESCO in 2017 during the first Trump administration, then rejoined five years later under President Biden. Kenyon says through it all, Iowa City’s status as a City of Literature remained unchanged.  “Obviously there were negative repercussions of our country not being a member of UNESCO, but in terms of the designation and our status, nothing changed there,” he says. “My hope is that that’s the same this time, and I have no reason to believe it won’t be.”

The nation’s withdrawal from UNESCO will take full effect in 2027. The departure marks the third time this year the Trump administration has announced plans to exit a U.N. agency, following its withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the U.N. Human Rights Council.