Administration directs U.S. withdrawal from 66 international organizations

2026-01-07

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Administration directs U.S. withdrawal from 66 international organizations

Bread and Circus: The Complete Record of American Governance

Today’s newsletter covers official U.S. government happenings from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches yesterday, as well as key economic indicators. Below, you’ll find concise summaries of each document, with links to the original sources for further reading.

What Happened Yesterday:

🦅 Executive Branch: 2 documents (1 Executive Order, 1 Presidential Action)
🏛️ Legislative Branch: No activity
⚖️ Judicial Branch: No activity
📊 Economic Indicators: 2 documents (2 Bureau of Labor Statistics press releases)
Total words condensed: 4,868 into 1,232

The Big Picture

On January 7, 2026 the White House moved on two fronts: it ordered U.S. agencies to begin withdrawing from 66 named international organizations (35 non‑UN groups and 31 UN bodies) after a review of U.S. participation, and it issued an order aimed at defense contractors that immediately halts dividends and stock buybacks while directing rapid identification and remediation of underperforming firms. The foreign‑policy memorandum tells agencies to take “immediate steps” to end participation and to stop funding UN bodies “to the extent permitted by law,” but it also says actions must follow existing statutes and available funding—so implementation will be phased and legally constrained. The defense order sets concrete timing: identify underperformers within 30 days, give them 15 days to fix problems, and require within 60 days that future contracts bar buybacks/dividends during periods of underperformance and tie executive pay to on‑time delivery and production increases.

Those moves matter because they mark a clear shift toward using executive power to reshape both America’s role in international institutions and the incentives of private industry. Withdrawing from bodies such as climate and health panels would reduce formal U.S. engagement on global issues and could curb U.S. funding and cooperation on migration, development, and science. The contractor rules, if enforced, would lower near‑term returns for shareholders and change how companies allocate cash—intended to prioritize getting equipment to troops over payouts to investors. Meanwhile economic data show a softer U.S. labor market that weakens one constraint on intervention: November 2025 job openings were about 7.1 million (down 885,000 from a year earlier) and the unemployment rate was 4.6% (up 0.4 percentage point year‑over‑year), suggesting hiring demand is cooling. Those labor signals, plus the administration’s new directives, increase the likelihood of further government interventions tied to industrial capacity and budget priorities—but any action will run up against legal limits, funding availability, and likely political and judicial pushback.

Pattern to Watch

A pattern of stronger executive intervention at home and retrenchment abroad is emerging: two same‑day orders (Jan 7, 2026) targeted U.S. multilateral commitments (66 organizations) and private sector conduct (defense contractors), while labor data point to weaker hiring (7.1 million openings in Nov 2025; unemployment 4.6%). Taken together, these items suggest the administration is willing to use executive tools to secure supply chains and force corporate behavior while stepping back from some multilateral cooperation. Key signals this trend continues would be: concrete funding cutoffs or formal notices of withdrawal from named international bodies; rollout of the 30/15/60‑day contractor enforcement steps and visible changes to contract language; SEC or Commerce rulemaking on buybacks or export advocacy; and further economic signs of easing labor demand or lower wage pressure. Conversely, major legal defeats, congressional intervention, or quick reversals of funding decisions would indicate the push is limited.

🦅 Executive Branch

White House

On January 7, 2026, the President signed a memorandum (a written order) telling U.S. government departments to begin withdrawing the United States from 66 named international organizations—35 non‑UN groups and 31 UN bodies—after a review ordered by Executive Order 14199 on February 4, 2025. The memorandum says the Secretary of State reported the findings and that, after Cabinet talks, the President decided those groups are “contrary to the interests” of the United States; it directs agencies to take “immediate steps” to end U.S. participation and, for UN bodies, to stop funding as the law allows. This affects federal agencies, the Secretary of State, and any U.S. programs or money that support those organizations. The memorandum also says the actions must follow existing law, depend on available funding, and do not create new legal rights for anyone. If carried out, the moves would reduce U.S. ties, money, and cooperation with many international bodies (the memo names groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UN Population Fund), which could change how the U.S. works with other countries on climate, health, migration, and development. Read full document →
The executive order, signed January 7, 2026, says that defense contractors must stop paying dividends or buying back stock “effective immediately” until they meet performance standards, and it directs the official named in the order as the “Secretary of War” to identify underperforming contractors within 30 days, give them a 15‑day chance to fix problems, and then use tools such as the Defense Production Act, federal contract rules, or voluntary agreements to force faster production if fixes fail; it also requires that within 60 days future contracts ban buybacks/dividends during underperformance and tie executive pay to on‑time delivery and increased production, asks the Secretary of State and Commerce to consider stopping foreign sales help for such firms, and asks the SEC chair to consider changing the stock buyback safe harbor. This affects major U.S. defense contractors, their shareholders, and senior executives (and could affect foreign sales advocacy), and the order says it matters because, in the President’s view, contractors have been putting profits before getting equipment to U.S. troops; if carried out as written, it would reduce returns to investors and change how companies spend money to try to speed or prioritize military deliveries. Read full document →

🏛️ Legislative Branch

No activity today.

⚖️ Judicial Branch

No activity today.

📊 Economic Indicators

Bureau of Labor Statistics

In November 2025 the U.S. had about 7.1 million job openings (little changed from October but down 885,000 from a year ago), a job‑openings rate of 4.3%, hires of 5.1 million (3.2% hire rate) and total separations of 5.1 million (3.2% separations rate) — all basically unchanged month-to-month. Of those separations, quits (workers leaving voluntarily) were 3.2 million (2.0% quit rate) and layoffs/discharges were 1.7 million (1.1% rate); “other” separations (retirements, deaths, etc.) were 232,000, a new low. Industry moves included fewer openings in accommodation and food services (-148,000), transportation/warehousing/utilities (-108,000), and wholesale trade (-63,000), but more openings in construction (+90,000); quits rose sharply in accommodation and food services (+208,000). October’s prior numbers were revised (openings down 221,000 to 7.4 million; hires up 219,000 to 5.4 million), so month-to-month figures should be read with that in mind. Overall, the data show a mostly steady job market in November with fewer open jobs than a year earlier — a sign that hiring demand is softer, which can mean slower pay growth and less upward pressure on prices — and that matters because it affects how easy it is to find work, get raises, and pay for everyday things. Read full document →
The U.S. jobless rate was 4.6% in November 2025, up 0.4 percentage point from a year earlier, meaning a slightly larger share of people were unemployed; payroll jobs were basically unchanged in November across all states, but over the year some states added many jobs—Texas +146,300; Pennsylvania +97,600; New York +87,900; North Carolina +87,900—while the District of Columbia lost 32,800 jobs (down 4.2%); the biggest percent gains were in Missouri and South Carolina (+2.0% each). This mainly shows that hiring was uneven across the country and overall unemployment rose a little, not that prices changed (the release reports jobs, not inflation). Because the federal government was shut down in October, the household survey for that month was not done and response rates in November were lower (64% overall, ranging 47.2%–82.8%), so some results are less certain than usual. Read full document →

Sources Covered Today

White House: Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
White House: Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting
BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
BLS: State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly)

All U.S. Government Activity Yesterday:

Presidential actions issued: 2
Regulations: 0
Bills presented to president: 0
Bills that became law: 0
Supreme Court opinions issued: 0
Supreme Court oral arguments: 0

This is your daily record of history unfolding — no spin, just facts. For 343,073,753 people in the United States, this was yesterday.

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