Trump signs executive order to pull US from WHO

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order kick-starting the process of pulling out the United States from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The order was one of many issued by Trump after his second coming as US president on Monday.

The order said the US was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states”.

The executive order also said WHO required “unfairly onerous payments” from the US that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other larger countries such as China.

At the signing of the order, Trump said “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore”.

This is the second time Trump has ordered that the US pulls out of the WHO.

In 2020, during Trump’s first term as president, he was critical of how the WHO tackled the COVID-19 pandemic, and accused the organisation of being biased towards China in how it issued guidance.

He had begun the process of pulling out from the global health body during the pandemic. President Joe Biden would later reverse that decision.

The US is the largest funder of the WHO and in 2023 contributed almost one-fifth of the agency’s budget.

The exit means the US will leave the WHO in 12 months and cease all financial contributions to the organisation’s work.