The recent White House memorandum announcing the withdrawal of the United States from international organizations, conventions, and treaties that are deemed contrary to U.S. interests reflects a broader pattern in the national political narrative: systemic challenges are increasingly framed in terms of regulatory and multilateral constraints rather than concentrated private wealth or economic inequality. By explicitly prioritizing ideological alignment with narrow national interests over participation in multilateral institutions, this policy decision underscores how environmental and social governance mechanisms are more frequently cast as sources of economic friction or decline, while the role of concentrated private capital — including that of billionaires and major corporate actors — rarely becomes a focal point of critique in mainstream political discourse. The episode thus amplifies longstanding debates about blame and responsibility in U.S. public policy, illustrating that institutional and regulatory frameworks are often more politically salient targets than economic elites, even as wealth concentration and its political influence grow.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/withdrawing-the-united-states-from-international-organizations-conventions-and-treaties-that-are-contrary-to-the-interests-of-the-united-states/