President Trump is making good on his pre-election pledge to withdraw from the World Health Organization. He signed an executive action in the Oval Office Monday night to the process for terminating U.S. membership in the U.N. agency that oversees global health issues.
"World Health ripped us off," Trump said, during an extended, relaxed discussion with reporters as he signed executive actions.
The withdrawal process will take a year to complete – that's the timeframe established for any future pullout when the United States became a member of the WHO in 1948.
Trump's frustration with the WHO goes back to the height of the COVID era. He's repeatedly criticized the organization for being too slow to respond to the pandemic and being "owned and controlled by China."
The loss for the WHO is significant. The U.S. is its biggest donor. In 2022-2023, for example, Washington contributed $1.284 billion dollars – hundreds of millions of dollars more than Germany, the second-place donor.
Critics of Trump say the withdrawal is a big loss for the U.S. as well. The WHO plays a pivotal role in monitoring global health threats and, they point out, that without a seat at the organization's international table the U.S. risks losing access to valuable data on emerging disease threats.
"This is the most cataclysmic decision," says Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of WHO's Center on Global Health Law. "[This is] a grave wound to American national interests and our national security. This will really leave our agencies – like the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and NIH [National Institutes of Health] flying blind."
Supporters of the decision reject this argument.
Brett Schaefer — a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation — said there are other ways the Trump Administration can lead in the global health arena after leaving WHO.
"There's hardly a lack of precedent for maybe addressing pandemic issues outside of the WHO," he said, speaking to NPR before the executive order was signed. "There's a reason why UNAIDS exists, and there's a reason why GAVI [The Vaccine Alliance] exists, and there's a reason why the Global Fund exists – and that's because the WHO has, in the past, not been seen as either the most effective or the most responsive vehicle for addressing various international health concerns."
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