https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/uploads/2020/05/29/post_main_cover_fit//be6522171e45436cd214e4bd956610d39d34419c.jpeg — U.S. President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on May 29, 2020. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

Trump says terminating US relationship with WHO over virus

29 May 2020, 23:02

WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS: US President Donald Trump on Friday said he is terminating the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus, saying the WHO had essentially become a puppet organization of China.

Appearing in the White House Rose Garden, Trump went ahead with repeated threats to eliminate American funding for the group, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Trump said the WHO had failed to make reforms to the organization that the president had demanded earlier this month. He said Chinese officials "ignored their reporting obligations" about the virus to the WHO and pressured the WHO to "mislead the world" when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.

"China has total control over the World Health Organization despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying which is approximately $450 million a year. We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them directly but they have refused to act," said Trump.

"Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs," he said.

Trump has long questioned the value of the United Nations and scorned the importance of multilateralism as he focuses on an "America First" agenda. Since taking office, Trump has quit the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, a global accord to tackle climate change and the Iran nuclear deal.

The World Health Organization is a U.N. specialized agency - an independent international body that works with the United Nations. The WHO and a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's decision

Read also

https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/uploads/2020/05/29/template_small_cover/941ce87208ad75330b51d4c3b3ea0ff7baa77ea5.jpeg

The options to reply and like the tweet have also been disabled, while the retweet and quote-tweet functions have been left active.

https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/uploads/2020/05/28/template_small_cover/4ff0ddc0b4492ceefcc5f603f588da1c29052990.jpeg

Threatening to shut down Twitter for flagging false content. Claiming he can "override" governors who dare to keep churches closed to congregants. Asserting the "absolute authority” to force states to reopen, even when local leaders say it's too soon.

https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/uploads/2020/05/27/template_small_cover/040ff4182039bf37c7c0517e641d3fe252c97b4e.jpeg

Twitter's decision comes as Trump, already facing US economic calamity and 100,000 deaths from coronavirus as well as sinking reelection polls, received a storm of backlash over his pushing of the Scarborough conspiracy theory.