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The U.S. is set to withdraw from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) immediately following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to recent reports.
The organization, which currently receives approximately 16 percent of its $6.83 billion budget from the U.S., stands to lose its largest financial contributor through this anticipated move.
🇨🇦 most of you want Trudeau gone but you also despise Donald J Trump. Why is that, did the media tell you to hate him?
Trump is pulling out of NATO, the WHO and the Paris Agreement. Not one 🇨🇦ian politician will do that. He is also ending all the gender 💩.
Drill Baby drill. pic.twitter.com/u8vGxdmH1h
— TR6Guy 🇨🇦 (@tr6_guy) December 22, 2024
The Financial Times reports that Trump’s transition team has informed experts of their plans to announce the withdrawal on January 20, the day of inauguration. This decision follows previous criticism from conservative voices regarding the organization’s substantial cost to American taxpayers and Trump’s own assertions about its allegiance to Chinese interests.
This withdrawal would mark a completion of Trump’s previous attempt during his first term. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he initiated a departure process, citing concerns about Chinese influence over the organization. However, this effort was halted when President Joe Biden restored ties with the W.H.O. upon taking office in 2021.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Trump’s team is eager to expedite the withdrawal process this time. Ashish Jha, who served as Biden’s White House coronavirus response coordinator and currently leads Brown University’s school of public health, told the outlet: “There are lots of people who are going to be part of the inner circle of the administration who do not trust the W.H.O. and want to symbolically show on day one that they are out.”
Trump plans to pull the US out of The WHO again.
“The World Health Organization has become nothing more than a corrupt globalist scam…”
Everyone cool with that?😎
— SaltyGoat (@SaltyGoat17) December 22, 2024
While Trump’s transition team hasn’t officially confirmed these plans, an insider familiar with the situation remarked to the FT: “The same W.H.O. that we left in the first administration? It seems like we wouldn’t much care what they have to say.”
The former president’s previous criticisms of the organization centered on its perceived alignment with China, particularly regarding the coronavirus crisis. In April 2020, Trump stated: “They seem to be very China-centric. That’s a nice way of saying it, but they seem to be very China-centric, and they seem to err always on the side of China.”
The move would represent a significant shift in U.S. global health policy and dramatically impact the W.H.O.’s operational capabilities, given the substantial American financial contribution to its budget.
