President Trump withdraws U.S. from WHO on first day in office

The Trump administration cited the WHO’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises as reasons for the withdrawal.

January 20, 2025

WASHINGTON D.C.–Newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) and halting future U.S. funding to the United Nations organization.

The order cited the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises” as reasons behind the U.S. withdrawal. It also stated that the WHO failed to “adopt urgently needed reforms” and was unable to demonstrate independence from “the inappropriate political influence” of member states.

“In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO,” the Trump executive order stated.

Reggie Littlejohn, Founder and President of the advocacy group, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers applauded the President’s action.

“As you know, we have been working tirelessly over the past several years to expose the corruption and incompetence of the World Health Organization,” Littlejohn said in a statement. “Today is a day to celebrate a great victory!”

“President Trump has come through on his campaign promise on Day One to withdraw us from the World Health Organization,” she continued. “Thank goodness he did not listen to those who said we should remain members in order to reform it.”

“As I have said for years, the WHO is irredeemably corrupt. There’s no reforming it,” added Littlejohn.

Trump initiated his first withdrawal process from the WHO during his first term in 2020. President Joe Biden reversed the decision upon taking office in 2021.

The latest order states that the Trump administration will request to the United Nations that the presidential letter that retracted the 2020 withdrawal notification be revoked.

Sources: The Epoch Times; Women’s Rights Without Frontiers