President Trump said an announcement regarding his administration’s stance on the World Health Organization is coming next week.
“We are going to have an announcement on the World Health Organization sometime next week,” the president said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing on Friday afternoon. “As you know, we have given them approximately $500 million a year, and we are going to be talking about that subject next week. We’ll have a lot to say about it.”
The WHO has faced allegations from Republican lawmakers and others that a pro-China bias may have hampered its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this week, Trump said he is considering putting a “very powerful hold” on the “vast amounts” of funds the United States gives to the organization. The president also said the WHO “seemed very China-centric” and “really blew it” in its coronavirus response.
The WHO has a $4.8 billion budget, to which the U.S. is the largest contributor. In its fiscal 2021 budget proposal, the Trump administration seeks to reduce the amount Congress delegated to the agency in 2020, around $111 million, to about $58 million. The U.S. also voluntarily gives between $100 million and $400 million more per year to the WHO for specific projects.
