Trump Administration Finalizes U.S. Withdrawal From WHO
The United States has formally завершed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday.
President Donald Trump initiated the move on his first day back in office in 2025, signing an executive order declaring the U.S. intent to leave the WHO. The administration cited the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with concerns over what it described as “onerous payments” that were not proportional to contributions made by other member states.
Nearly one year later, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of State confirmed that the withdrawal process is now complete.
The U.S. had been a member of the World Health Organization since its founding in 1948. The WHO operates as a specialized agency of the United Nations, tasked with coordinating global public health initiatives such as disease monitoring and outbreak response.
Central to the Trump administration’s decision was dissatisfaction with the WHO’s response to COVID-19 and its relationship with China.
“The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread,” HHS said in a press release announcing the withdrawal. “During that period, WHO leadership echoed and praised China’s response despite evidence of early underreporting, suppression of information and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission.”
During a media call Thursday previewing the withdrawal, a senior HHS official emphasized that the U.S. would continue to lead on global public health despite leaving the organization.
The official noted that while the United States historically provided up to 25% of the WHO’s funding, it has never had a director lead the organization, pointing to other countries that have contributed significantly less.
The U.S. is “walking away” from organizations that “fail the United States,” the official said, but not stepping back from its role as a global health leader. The official highlighted multiyear bilateral Global Health Cooperation agreements signed by the State Department with dozens of countries in December 2025, adding that more updates are expected.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharply criticized the WHO in a prerecorded address to the World Health Assembly in May 2025, accusing the organization of becoming “mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics.”
“While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public,” Kennedy said.
He continued, “Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it’s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance. The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.”
Trump previously moved to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO during his first term in 2020, a decision that drew sharp criticism from Democrats who argued the move weakened global disease surveillance and reduced U.S. preparedness for future pandemics.
Then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the withdrawal “true senselessness” at the time, warning that “millions of lives” were at risk.
The completion of the withdrawal comes as Trump attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where his visit has been marked by renewed pressure on European leaders, including calls for a deal that would give the United States control over Greenland.
