On April 14, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is halting funding to the World Health Organization or WHO while a review is conducted. Trump stated that the review would cover the role of WHO in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus.
Trump's decision comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in decades and he has defended his own handling of the outbreak in the United States for the past few weeks as excellent.
Trump halts WHO funding
President Trump has been swirling questions about whether he downplayed the crisis or ignored warnings from members of his administration about the potential severity of the pandemic. Sources say that Trump has sought to assign the blame elsewhere, including the news media and WHO.
The United States funds $400 million to $500 million to the WHO every year, according to Trump, and he added that China contributes around $40 million every year.
Trump stated that if the WHO had done its job to get medical experts into China to assess the situation on the ground and to call out China's lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death.
The President has also questioned America's funding to the United Nations, he had withdrawn from global climate agreements and lambasted the World Trade Organization, as he claims that all organizations were ripping off the United States. He also stated that the WHO made a dangerous and costly decision to oppose travel restrictions from China, but just days before Trump instituted his ban on travelers from China, he was also praising the said country.
On January 24, President Trump tweeted: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"
Trump administration v.s WHO
President Trump is not the only one who criticized the WHO on Tuesday, U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also criticized the organization, but he did not specifically react to the announcement that the US would withhold funds from the WHO.
Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that they need answers and transparency from the World Health Organization. They expect the WHO to perform its primary function,which is to make sure that the world has accurate, timely, effective and real information about what is going on in the global health space and the WHO did not get that done.
In Pompeo's interview with Good Morning Orlando, he said that the WHO in its history has done some good work. Unfortunately, it did not hit the top of its game in this pandemic, and that the government needs to make sure that they push through efforts to fundamentally change that or make a different decision that says they will do their part to make sure that important world health obligations actually function.
The announcement about the halting of funding came after the United Kingdom announced an additional £65 million contribution to the WHO. The decision to freeze the funding is the latest in a series of Trump administration's actions against international multilateral organizations.
