Trump announces the U.S. will cut funding for the World Health Organization

During an announcement in the Rose Garden on Friday, President Trump said the U.S. will cut funding from and terminate ties with the World Health Organization because of what he claims is its relationship with China.

Video transcript

DONALD TRUMP: The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government. China's cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide. Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization, and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.

Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from China, but I did it anyway, and was proven to be 100% correct. 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.

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. The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is it that China shut off infected people from Wuhan to all other parts of China? It went nowhere else. It didn't go to Beijing. It went nowhere else. But they allowed them to freely travel throughout the world, including Europe and the United States.

The death and destruction caused by this is incalculable. We must have answers not only for us, but for the rest of the world. This pandemic has underscored the crucial importance of building up America's economic independence, reshoring our critical supply chains, and protecting America's scientific and technological advances.