In early December, as the vote tally flashed across the United Nations General Assembly, rumor hardened into fact: The United States had aligned with a handful of authoritarian regimes to oppose a Ukrainian resolution on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The move seemed to symbolize a shift for Washington within the international body.

The resolution expressed “grave alarm” over a Russian strike last February that compromised primary safety functions at the power plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The text also formalized the Ukrainian spelling of the site, “Chornobyl.”) It passed 97-8, with the United States joining Belarus, China, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Niger, and Russia in opposition; 39 countries abstained.

In early December, as the vote tally flashed across the United Nations General Assembly, rumor hardened into fact: The United States had aligned with a handful of authoritarian regimes to oppose a Ukrainian resolution on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The move seemed to symbolize a shift for Washington within the international body.

The resolution expressed “grave alarm” over a Russian strike last February that compromised primary safety functions at the power plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The text also formalized the Ukrainian spelling of the site, “Chornobyl.”) It passed 97-8, with the United States joining Belarus, China, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Niger, and Russia in opposition; 39 countries abstained.

The United States explained its unusual opposition by citing a reference in the resolution to the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The language—noting how Chernobyl cooperation “can contribute” to the 2030 agenda—is boilerplate in many General Assembly texts, helping sponsors to whip votes from developing nations. A week earlier, the United States had supported Ukraine on another resolution calling for the return of children abducted by Russia.

Less than a month after the United States broke with precedent on the Chernobyl resolution vote, it carried out strikes in Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro—resulting in an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday. Many capitals have seen Maduro’s rule as illegitimate since the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump followed up this raid with threats against two Security Council members: Colombia and Denmark. Then, on Wednesday, Trump announced that Washington would withdraw from dozens of international bodies, including the U.N. Population Fund and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Under Trump, the United States is justifying outsider positions and withholding funding for popular U.N. programs based on arguments about language. It is wielding........

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