Trump orders US withdrawal from World Health Organization

(Patria) - The United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said, adding that the global health agency mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. Trump said the WHO failed to be independent of "inappropriate political influence from member states" and demands "unfairly heavy payments" from the US that are disproportionate to the amounts given by other, larger countries, such as China.

"The WHO has ripped us off, everyone rips off the United States. That won't happen anymore," Trump said as he signed an executive order on withdrawal, shortly after his inauguration for a second term.

This move means the US will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months and halt all financial contributions to its work. The United States accounts for 18 percent of the WHO's total funding. The WHO's last two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.

The US departure will likely jeopardize programs across the organization, according to several experts inside and outside the WHO, especially those fighting tuberculosis, the world's biggest infectious disease killer, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies.

American staff working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will seek partners to take over necessary WHO activities, according to the order.

Trump's withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to leave the organization in 2020, during his first presidential term, accusing the WHO of helping Chinese efforts to "deceive the world" about the origins of COVID-19.

Trump also suspended US contributions to the agency in the 2020-2021 period, costing nearly $200 million, as it struggled with the world's worst health crisis in a century.

Under US law, leaving the WHO requires a one-year notice period and payment of all outstanding obligations. Before the US withdrawal could be completed last time, Joe Biden won the country's presidential election and halted it on his first day in office, January 20, 2021.