President Donald Trump issued another ultimatum to the embattled World Health Organization (WHO) Monday, threatening to permanently withdraw the United States’ support for the organization unless it undertakes quick, substantial reforms.
Last month, the president announced a temporary suspension of the more than $400 million the United States sends the pro-abortion United Nations entity every year, pending a review of its “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” On Monday, he followed up by releasing a letter the Whitie House sent to WHO general-director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The letter explains that the administration’s review “confirmed many of the serious concerns I raised last month” as to the international body’s “repeated missteps” and “China centric” nature.
“The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,” it says. “I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America’s interests.”
If the WHO “does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days,” Trump warns, “I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization.”
Critics have faulted the pro-abortion organization for, among other offenses, opposing bans on travel from China that could have limited the reach of COVID-19, and for legitimizing the false claims coming out of the Chinese government that initially downplayed the gravity of the situation and covered up the Communist regime’s mishandling of it.
“In December, the WHO refused to act on or publicize Taiwan’s warning that the new respiratory infection emerging in China could pass from human to human,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote. “In mid January, despite accumulating evidence of patients contracting what we now know as COVID-19 from other people, the organization repeated the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party] lie that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. In January the WHO, at Beijing’s behest, also blocked Taiwan from participating in critical meetings to coordinate responses to the coronavirus and even reportedly provided wrong information about the virus’s spread in Taiwan.”
Population Research Institute head and China expert Steve Mosher adds that Ghebreyesus and his senior adviser, Dr. Bruce Aylward, have been “carrying water” for the Chinese regime, from backing claims that the virus didn’t originate in China to praising the regime’s handling of the outbreak.
Trump’s latest warning echoes previous comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who suggested that the future of the United States’ relationship with the WHO will depend on whether the organization earns back the public’s trust.
“If the institution works and functions, the United States will always lead and be part of it,” he said. “When it’s not delivering, when in fact it’s failing to get the outcomes that are desired, we’re going to work with partners around the world to deliver a structure, a form, a governance model, that will actually deliver on the intended purposes.”
