On Tuesday, July 7 President Trump announced to Congress that the United States has pulled out of the World Health Organization.
The official withdrawal notice was sent to the United Nations secretary-general this week but the process will take up to a year. We won’t officially be out of WHO until 2021.
Back in April President Trump ordered US payments to the WHO be halted. “Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said at the time.
Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent in November elections, vowed he would immediately end the pullout if he won the White House.
President Trump has faced backlash from the Democrats for his decision.
In May, President Trump held a press conference in the Rose Garden. “China has total control over the World Health Organization, despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year. We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent, global public health needs.”
