Why is Trump so mad at the World Health Organization?
President Donald Trump says he’s halting funding to the World Health Organization, leaving questions about his decision to do so and his issues with the WHO as the world remains in the throws of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a news briefing Tuesday, Trump announced he’s holding all U.S. funding to the WHO while the agency is investigated for accusations of “mismanagement” and “cover-ups.”
A release from the White House outlining the reasons Trump says are behind the decision states U.S. taxpayers contribute about $400 million to $500 million to the WHO each year but that the organization has “failed them.”
Trump also accuses the WHO of being biased toward China, despite the fact it says the country provides a “small fraction” of the funding the U.S. does.
“The American people deserve better from the WHO, and no more funding will be provided until its mismanagement, cover-ups, and failures can be investigated,” the release says.
The decision and accusations come as Trump himself is under fire for his response to the coronavirus.
Questions are circulating about whether the president downplayed the severity of COVID-19 and ignored warnings about it, CNN reports. He’s also been criticized for acting too slowly to curb the spread of the virus, BBC reports.
But Trump has fervently defended his response to the pandemic, citing his decision in late January to place travel restrictions on China, according to BBC.
During a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing Monday, a video was played praising Trump’s response to the pandemic, CBS news reports, and he was adamant that “everything” his administration did was “right,” citing unfair reporting in the media.
When asked by a reporter during the briefing what his administration did in February with the time the “travel ban bought,” Trump responded “a lot.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN that the WHO and China have made mistakes, but said Trump is “looking to deflect blame.”
“Right now, there is a very coordinated effort amongst the White House and their allies to try to find scapegoats for the fatal mistakes that the President made during the early stages of this virus,” he told CNN.
But the White House statement emphasized the mistakes it believes the WHO has made, saying it can’t be trusted until “longstanding structural issues” are addressed.
“The WHO has shown it was not prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to a severe infectious disease crisis like this,” the statement said.
Others have criticized the timing of the decision to halt funding.
The U.S. contributed about 20 percent of WHO’s total budget in 2018-2019, NPR reports, and is the largest single government donor.
“Now is a time for unity in the global battle to push the COVID-19 pandemic into reverse, not a time to cut the resources of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is spearheading and coordinating the global body’s efforts,” United Nations chief António Guterres said in a statement on Tuesday.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director, said in a news briefing Wednesday that the agency is assessing how its programs will be impacted by the threat to halt funds. He said it will try to fill gaps with other partners.
