Trump orders US withdrawal from WHO again

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing America from the World Health Organisation, the second time in less than five years that the US has made a move to withdraw from the world body.

Advertisement

It was among dozens of executive actions he signed after being sworn in on Monday for a second term, on issues ranging from immigration to foreign policy to climate change.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) came under intense criticism from Trump in 2020 for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which grew into a worldwide health crisis during the final year of his first term.

“That's a big one,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House when an aide presented to him an executive order on this to be signed by him. “We paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China, with 1.4 billion people, has 350 dependents.... Nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But let's say we have 325 (million people). They (China) had 1.4 billion people. They were paying $39 million. We were paying $500 million. It seemed a little unfair to me,” he said.

“That wasn't the reason, but I dropped out (of WHO). They offered me to come back for $39 million. In theory, it should be less than that, but, when Biden came back, they came back for $500 million. He knew that you could have come back for $39 million. They wanted us back so badly. So, we'll see what happens,” he said.

Meanwhile, the WHO expressed regret over Trump's announcement as it hoped the US would reconsider its decision and engage in a dialogue to maintain the partnership. “The WHO regrets the announcement that the US intends to withdraw from the organisation,” it said.