President of United States of America Donald Trump has finally withdrawn the contribution that his country makes to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He had been accused recently for wanting personal recognition by WHO as the best performer in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, which he didn’t get and reason he was said to have cooked propaganda of different kind to run China down because he believes WHO was biased towards the Asian nation.
President Trump, who has been under criticism for his handling of the response to the coronavirus and has seen his poll numbers drop, on Tuesday blamed the World Health Organization for what he called its failures in the crisis and said he planned to halt American funding of the organization.
The announcement came as Mr. Trump continued to be angered by criticism of his response to the pandemic, which has been assailed as too slow and ineffective, failing to quickly embrace public health measures that could have contained the virus.
“Everybody knows what is going on there,” he said, blaming the organization for what he described as a “disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations.”
The president did not say whether the United States would permanently stop funding the W.H.O., saying only that it would halt payments while the administration reviewed its role in handling the virus. Last year, the United States contributed about $553 million of the W.H.O.’s $6 billion budget, a significant sum to lose in the middle of a pandemic.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly pointed to his decision to impose travel restrictions on China as proof that he responded early to warnings about the dangers of the coronavirus. He said that decision saved “thousands and thousands of lives,” and that the W.H.O. “fought us.” The president blamed the organization for a “20-fold” increase in cases worldwide.
As recently as February, the W.H.O. had advised against imposing travel restrictions to places with outbreaks of the coronavirus, saying it was not an effective way to combat its spread.
Mr. Trump has been defensive about his decision to institute early travel restrictions on China, crediting himself with saving lives while sustaining criticism for being xenophobic and racist.
But Mr. Trump has not addressed his administration’s inaction after issuing the travel restrictions, or the gap in the timeline of his response between the restrictions announced on Jan. 31 and the declaration of a national emergency on March 13.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday issued a blistering attack on the president for his handling of the pandemic, asserting that Mr. Trump had caused “unnecessary deaths and economic disaster” by ignoring early warnings about the disease, bungling the federal response and refusing to take responsibility.
In a sharply worded letter to House Democrats, released as Mr. Trump gave his daily briefing from the White House, Ms. Pelosi portrayed the president as an incompetent liar and called him a “weak person” and a “poor leader,” saying he had obscured the dire reality that the nation still lacks the tests and health equipment needed to combat the pandemic.
