Trump Says U.S. Will End Its Relationship With The World Health Organization
The president has continuously denounced the WHO and blamed China throughout the pandemic, which has hit the U.S. harder than any other country.
President Trump announced Friday that the United States will end its relationship with the World Health Organization—despite an ongoing pandemic. The president has previously threatened to withdraw funding from the UN agency in recent months.
In a press briefing Friday from the White House, Trump attributed the move to the Chinese government “[pressuring] the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.”
The WHO first announced a public health emergency because of coronavirus in January and declared the virus a pandemic in March.
Trump has continuously denounced the WHO and blamed China throughout the pandemic, which has hit the U.S. harder than any other country, amid ongoing criticism of his own administration’s response.
“China’s pattern of misconduct is well-known,” Trump said. “For decades they’ve ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before.”
Trump said that because of the WHO’s lack of “greatly needed reforms,” the U.S. “will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization.”
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Trump said the roughly $450 million contribution from the U.S. that goes toward the WHO will be redirected to other organizations that focus on global health needs. But Congress allocates much of the country’s funding to the WHO, which the president wouldn’t ordinarily have the power to modify, CNBC reported.
The decision comes just days after the U.S. reported more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. The death toll worldwide is more than 362,000, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus tracker. The virus has infected more than 5.8 million people globally, including more than 1.7 million in the U.S.
The president gave no further details about the termination of the country’s relationship with the WHO. Trump took no questions and did not address other national stories at his press conference, which came as the country was reeling from days of protests over the death of unarmed Black man George Floyd.