President Donald Trump says the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, accusing it of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic and other global health crises.
The move means the United States will withdraw from the U.N. health agency within 12 months and cease all funding for the agency’s activities. The United States is by far the largest donor to the WHO, contributing about 18% of total funding. WHO’s latest biennium budget (2024-2025) was $6.8 billion.
President Trump also signed an executive order suspending overseas development assistance for 90 days pending review.
President Trump said the WHO could not act independently from “improper political influence in WHO member states” and that the United States was forced to make “unduly burdensome payments” disproportionate to those provided by other major powers, such as China. He said he requested.
“The World Health Organization is deceiving us, everyone is deceiving America, and that won’t happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing.
President Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. In 2020, during his first term as president, he took steps to quit the organization, accusing it of supporting China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of the coronavirus.
The WHO strongly denies the allegations and says it has collected data to determine whether the new coronavirus infection arose from contact between humans and infected animals or from research on similar viruses in domestic laboratories. He said he continues to pressure the Chinese government to share the information.
