US News
Trump Blasts ‘China-centric’ WHO; Calls for Cuts to U.S. Funding
President Trump has had enough of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump said the organization has completely fumbled the COVID-19 response. He also called out the WHO for its pro-China policy decisions. Additionally, he said his administration is taking a close look at cutting funding for the group.
The WHO was highly critical of the U.S. travel ban on China and strongly recommended against the action. Trump says if they had listened to the organization’s advice, it would have been disastrous for the country. “Don’t close your borders, they strongly recommended,” he told Sean Hannity during a Fox News interview on Tuesday. “That would’ve been a disaster, that would’ve been a total disaster,” he continued.
However, advising against the travel ban was only one of the WHO’s many fumbles. According to Trump, the organization completely botched its response to the pandemic and repeatedly made policy decisions that favored China. “They called every shot wrong,” Trump said. He lamented that the US funds the WHO, but the organization remains “very China centric” on a Tweet last Tuesday. He added that the U.S. should strongly consider cutting off the organization’s funding.
WHO Against Trump and the U.S.
“We're going to look at it [cutting funding] now because I think every step that they made, everything that they said was wrong and always in favor of China,” said Trump, adding that he was glad that he disregarded the group’s advice. “I didn't listen to them, and I did what I wanted to do, and it was a good move,” Trump said.
The U.S. paid $513 million to fund the WHO in 2017. This figure is $341 million more than it had supplied the previous year. The same year, China only pitched in $7.2 million for the WHO’s budget, yet the organization seems to routinely favor the authoritarian regime.
GOP officials quickly joined the president in condemning the WHO. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) blasted the organization. She said the organization shouldn’t receive any more U.S. funds under its current leadership. “They’ve been deceptive. They’ve been slow and they’ve been China apologists.” Graham said of the WHO. “Until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it’s in America’s best interests to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus and did the same thing in 2015.”
Graham also criticized China’s virus response and blamed the authoritarian regime for sparking the global pandemic.
“Without China being irresponsible, lying to the world about the way the disease is transmitted, withholding information about the level of infection, silencing doctors, there would be no pandemic,” Graham said. “China is a pandemic incubator. These markets create conditions for the virus to spread to the human food chain, from wild animals like bats and monkeys,” she added.
“No more money to the WHO until they get new people in charge will understand there that they're there to help the world fight disease, not apologize for China,” Graham said.
Divide Amidst a Pandemic
The WHO clearly fumbled the ball on the COVID-19 response. If China has been more transparent in the early days of the outbreak, the pandemic could have been contained more effectively. If President Trump listened to the WHO and progressive U.S. lawmakers who argued against the China travel ban, the U.S. would undoubtedly be dealing with a worse outbreak than it is today.
America needs to take a close look at its funding relationship with the WHO. The said relationship has repeatedly proven to be ineffective in its ability to contain a pandemic. The organization played nice with China while it lied to the world about COVID-19. It also undermined U.S. national security by arguing against the border closure.
The WHO clearly doesn’t have America’s best interests in mind. If that’s the case, then U.S. taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for this incompetent international bureaucracy.
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