Trump Withdraws U.S. From Another Europe-Based Global Org
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are continuing their effort to disentangle the United States from foreign alliances and organizations that have, in the past, worked to undermine American governance.
The Trump administration will withdraw from a major European anti-corruption watchdog, continuing its broader effort to reduce American participation in international organizations it says provide insufficient benefits to the country.
The U.S. formally notified the Council of Europe on Monday that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, commonly known as GRECO.
The U.S. has participated in the organization since 2000 but will officially cease being a member on Dec. 31, according to the Council of Europe. Only two countries have previously withdrawn from GRECO: Russia and Belarus.
The State Department said the decision followed a review that concluded continued membership was not sufficiently advancing American interests.
“The U.S. Department of State’s primary responsibility is to protect the American people,” a department spokesperson said.
The department said GRECO membership requires an annual financial contribution but “does not provide tangible benefits to U.S. national security.”
“The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,” the State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, added.
Rather than relying on multilateral monitoring organizations, the administration said it intends to concentrate on anti-corruption tools that directly advance U.S. security and economic interests.
Those measures include sanctions, visa restrictions and targeted foreign assistance designed to strengthen investigations into corruption overseas.
The State Department described those approaches as “higher-impact tools” for combating corruption that threatens American security and prosperity.
GRECO was established by the Council of Europe in 1999 to monitor whether participating countries comply with the organization’s anti-corruption standards.
Despite its European origins, membership is not limited to European countries or members of the European Union.
The United States joined in 2000 and, along with Kazakhstan, has been one of GRECO’s non-European participants.
GRECO does not prosecute corruption cases or impose criminal or financial penalties on governments.
Instead, countries undergo peer reviews examining their laws, institutions and practices. The organization then issues recommendations and conducts follow-up reviews to determine whether governments have implemented them.
Its evaluations have examined areas including conflicts of interest, financial disclosures, ethics rules, law enforcement, judicial integrity and corruption prevention among senior government officials.
The United States has undergone multiple rounds of evaluations during its more than two decades of participation.
GRECO’s fifth evaluation of the United States focused on preventing corruption and promoting integrity among top executive branch officials and federal law enforcement agencies.
An earlier GRECO report said the United States had fully implemented all recommendations from its first evaluation round, 87% from the second, 44% from the third and 75% from the fourth.
The Council of Europe expressed disappointment over Washington’s decision but left open the possibility of renewed cooperation.
“The United States has participated in GRECO since 2000 and has been a valuable contributor to its work and to the exchange of experience and good practice in preventing and combating corruption,” the organization said.
“GRECO remains open to resuming cooperation with the United States in the future in support of shared efforts to prevent corruption, strengthen integrity and uphold the rule of law.”
The decision is part of a much broader reassessment of American participation in international institutions under President Trump.
The administration has argued that some organizations consume U.S. taxpayer money while advancing policies that do not sufficiently serve American interests or have expanded beyond their original missions.
The United States has already withdrawn from organizations including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
In January, Washington also withdrew from the Venice Commission, another Council of Europe body that advises governments on constitutional law, democratic institutions and legal reforms.
The GRECO withdrawal also comes shortly after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Washington had not invited its election observers to monitor the Nov. 3 congressional midterm elections, departing from a practice followed during previous U.S. elections.
🔥🚨 🚨 🚨 John Kennedy MOCKS a Witness With an ‘Easter Bunny’ Question — Then the Hearing Takes a Sharp Turn Over Billion-Dollar Economic Promises
🔥 John Kennedy MOCKS a Witness With an ‘Easter Bunny’ Question — Then the Hearing Takes a Sharp Turn Over Billion-Dollar Economic Promises
The affordability debate in Washington took an unexpected turn when Senator John Kennedy invoked the Easter Bunny to challenge a witness over how the government would pay for a federal jobs guarantee. What began as a discussion about rising prices, housing costs, and economic growth quickly became a tense exchange over taxes, government spending, and the role of public policy in helping American families.
The confrontation took place during a June 23, 2026, Senate Banking Committee hearing titled “The Affordability Agenda.” The witnesses included Lindsey Johnson of the Consumer Bankers Association, Kevin Brown of the National Association of Realtors, Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber, and Julie Margetta Morgan, president of The Century Foundation.
Kennedy opened by questioning whether the witnesses were addressing the underlying problems facing ordinary Americans or primarily advocating for the industries and organisations they represented.
He made pointed remarks about cryptocurrency, real estate, and banking before turning his attention to Morgan, whom he criticised for her previous work in the Biden administration. Kennedy argued that her background was relevant to the discussion, particularly given his view that policies under the previous administration had contributed to inflation.
Morgan's broader position was that families were facing a serious affordability crisis and that policy choices, including tax policy, played a role in determining who benefited from economic growth. The disagreement between them soon became more direct.
Kennedy demands a clear answer on rising prices
Kennedy wanted the witnesses to explain how they would bring costs down.
He began with what sounded like an obvious question: was affordability ultimately about prices being too high?
After establishing that point, he argued that inflation had made everyday life more expensive and that policymakers needed to focus on increasing economic growth rather than pursuing broad deflation.
His concern was that an attempt to push prices downward across the economy could have damaging consequences for employment and economic activity. He pointed to China as a warning, referring to its deflationary pressures and youth unemployment.
The comparison was part of Kennedy's argument, not proof that the United States would experience the same outcome if prices declined. Deflation can arise under different economic conditions, and falling prices do not always have the same consequences. But Kennedy's central concern was clear: trying to reverse higher prices by forcing the overall price level down could create new problems for workers and businesses.
He argued instead that the country needed to grow its way out of the affordability crisis.
In his view, a stronger economy could help businesses expand, create more opportunities for workers, and increase wages. If household incomes rose enough, Americans could become better able to manage the higher costs they were already facing.
That approach placed economic growth at the centre of his argument. But the hearing also exposed a difficult distinction: higher wages can improve affordability, yet they do not automatically bring down the price of housing, healthcare, or other essential expenses.
For families struggling with a particular bill, a general promise of future growth may not provide immediate relief.
Housing costs expose a bigger disagreement
The discussion became especially pointed when Kennedy questioned Kevin Brown, who represented the National Association of Realtors.
Brown emphasised the need to increase housing inventory and address restrictions that can make it difficult to build homes. In places where demand outpaces the available supply, limited construction can contribute to high prices and rents.
Kennedy did not dismiss the importance of housing supply, but he repeatedly brought the discussion back to economic growth. He wanted to know how businesses would increase inventory without an economic environment that encouraged expansion.
Brown responded that housing affordability was more complicated than Kennedy's framing suggested, drawing on his experience in California, where the cost of housing has long been a major concern.
The two were approaching the issue from different directions.
Brown's emphasis was on the practical obstacles to building more homes, including zoning restrictions and limited inventory. Kennedy's emphasis was on the broader economic conditions he believed would enable businesses to grow and workers to earn more.
Both supply and income matter. If housing construction remains constrained, higher wages may simply leave buyers competing for the same limited number of homes. Conversely, increasing the number of homes available does not guarantee that every household will be able to afford them, particularly if financing and other costs remain high.
The exchange illustrated why housing affordability rarely has a single solution. Building more homes, reviewing restrictive land-use rules, improving household incomes, and addressing financing costs can all form part of the debate.
Kennedy wanted the witnesses to explain how economic growth could help families cope with inflation. Brown's answer highlighted why the details of individual markets cannot always be reduced to one national economic strategy.
The moment that brought the Easter Bunny into the hearing
The sharpest confrontation came when Kennedy returned to Julie Margetta Morgan.
He asked whether she supported a federal jobs guarantee, and Morgan answered that she believed it was a good idea.
A federal jobs guarantee is a policy concept under which the government would help ensure that people seeking work could access employment, generally through publicly supported jobs or partnerships with local communities. Supporters argue that such a programme could provide income and work opportunities to people who might otherwise struggle to find employment.
But the idea also raises questions about cost, programme design, the types of jobs offered, and how the government would pay for the initiative.
Kennedy seized on that funding question.
He asked how a federal jobs guarantee would be financed, then delivered the line that gave the exchange its headline: “You believe in the Easter Bunny, do you?”
The remark was intended to challenge the financial realism of the proposal. Kennedy was suggesting that supporting a programme in principle was not enough; its advocates also needed to explain where the money would come from.
Morgan responded that paying for public programmes becomes more difficult when the government provides tax cuts to the ultra-rich.
That answer shifted the argument toward taxation and the distribution of economic benefits.
Morgan's point was that government revenue and spending decisions cannot be considered in isolation. Tax cuts reduce revenue relative to what would otherwise be collected, depending on their structure and the economic effects they produce. A government deciding whether to fund a new programme must therefore consider its broader tax and spending choices.
Kennedy, meanwhile, challenged the suggestion that economic growth primarily benefited the wealthiest Americans. He pressed Morgan on whether she believed all the gains from growth went to the rich.
The exchange did not produce a detailed estimate of the cost of a federal jobs guarantee or a comprehensive funding proposal. Instead, it revealed a fundamental disagreement about priorities: whether the focus should be on encouraging private-sector expansion or using taxation and public programmes to distribute economic opportunity more broadly.
A debate about taxes, wages, and who benefits from growth
The disagreement over the jobs guarantee reflects a wider argument in American economic policy.
One approach places greater emphasis on private enterprise. Under this view, governments should encourage investment, reduce unnecessary regulatory barriers, and create conditions in which businesses can expand and hire more workers. Rising employment and wages can then help households manage the cost of living.
Another approach places more emphasis on public intervention. Supporters argue that economic growth does not automatically benefit all households equally, and that public investment, social programmes, labour protections, and tax policy can help people who are left behind.
Neither approach removes the need to answer practical questions.
A growth-focused strategy must consider whether new jobs pay enough to cover essential expenses, whether workers can access those jobs, and whether increased demand could add pressure to already constrained markets.
A government-led jobs programme must explain its funding, eligibility rules, administrative structure, and likely effects on existing employment. Its advocates also need to consider whether the jobs created would meet genuine community needs and how the programme would operate during different economic conditions.
Those are substantive policy questions, and Kennedy's demand for a funding explanation touched on one of them. But his Easter Bunny remark was a rhetorical challenge rather than an economic calculation.
Similarly, Morgan's argument about tax cuts raised a question about government priorities, but it did not, on its own, establish the precise revenue effects of any particular tax policy or demonstrate how a jobs guarantee should be financed.
A complete assessment would require more than the exchange provided.
The final exchange takes an even sharper turn
After questioning Morgan about the federal jobs guarantee and tax cuts, Kennedy asked whether she considered herself a democratic socialist.
Morgan replied that she had never used that term to describe herself.
Kennedy then asked whether she had a Nazi tattoo, prompting an immediate expression of surprise from Morgan and an intervention from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who asked for the hearing to be brought back on track.
The exchange moved well beyond the original question of affordability. Rather than clarifying the cost of a jobs guarantee or the merits of competing economic proposals, it became a personal and ideological confrontation.
The moment underscored the increasingly combative tone of the discussion. Kennedy had begun by demanding practical answers about prices and wages, but the hearing ended this segment with a question that did little to advance the economic debate.
For viewers, it was likely to be among the most memorable moments. For anyone trying to understand the underlying policy disagreement, however, the more consequential questions remained the ones raised earlier: how should the United States reduce the pressure on household budgets, and what role should government play?
What the confrontation actually revealed
Kennedy's Easter Bunny question captured his scepticism toward proposals that, in his view, lacked a clear funding mechanism. His argument was that the country needed economic growth, stronger wages, and business expansion rather than promises that did not explain their costs.
Morgan's response reflected a different emphasis. She argued that tax policy affects the government's ability to fund public programmes and that the distribution of economic gains matters when families are struggling with affordability.
The hearing did not establish that one broad approach could solve the problem on its own. Nor did it provide a complete financial assessment of a federal jobs guarantee.
What it did show was how quickly the affordability debate can move from a shared concern—high prices—to a dispute over the proper role of government.
For many households, the central issue is immediate and practical: rent is due, groceries must be purchased, and wages have to cover the bills. Policymakers may disagree about how to respond, but proposals ultimately need to be judged by their costs, their likely effects, and the evidence supporting them.
Kennedy demanded that the witnesses explain how their ideas would work in practice. Morgan challenged the assumption that tax cuts for wealthy Americans could be separated from decisions about public spending. Brown highlighted the specific supply constraints affecting housing.
Each exchange pointed to a different part of the affordability problem.
The lasting question is not whether the Easter Bunny belongs in a Senate hearing. It is whether the policies being discussed can deliver measurable improvements in people's lives—and whether their supporters can explain both the benefits and the costs.
That is a far more demanding test than winning a memorable moment on camera.
