President Trump put the “China-centric” World Health Organization on notice.
At the White House coronavirus task force briefing on Tuesday, Trump criticized the WHO for not supporting a travel ban he implemented on China earlier this year meant to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus from the country of its origin and raised the possibility of putting a hold on the “vast amounts” of funds the United States gives to the international organization.
“We pay for a majority, the biggest portion of their money. And they actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time I did it. And they were wrong. They’ve been wrong about a lot of things,” Trump said. “And they had a lot of information early, and they didn’t want to — they seemed very China-centric.”
While Trump initially said the U.S. would place a “very powerful hold” on the money it gives to the organization, he later walked back the remark when questioned by a reporter about whether it was good timing to suspend funding during a pandemic.
“I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but we are going to look at it,” Trump responded, adding that it will be something his administration will “investigate.”
Earlier in the day, Trump criticized the WHO on Twitter.
“The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look,” Trump wrote. “Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?”
