America exits compromised WHO, rejects China appeasement, restores sovereignty, accountability, and health leadership worldwide.
The United States has formally completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), one year after Donald Trump signed an executive order—on his first day back in office in 2025—initiating the exit, according to Fox News.
The decision ends more than seven decades of US membership dating back to the WHO’s founding in 1948. Trump’s order cited the organization’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and “onerous payments” that, Washington argued, failed to reflect equitable burden-sharing among member states. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US State Department confirmed Thursday that the withdrawal is now complete.
At the core of the move is the administration’s long-standing indictment of the WHO’s early pandemic response and its deference to China. In a statement, HHS said the WHO delayed declaring a global public-health emergency and pandemic, costing the world critical weeks, while publicly praising Beijing despite evidence of early underreporting, information suppression, and delays acknowledging human-to-human transmission.
A senior HHS official emphasized that the United States will remain a global health leader outside the WHO framework. The official noted that the US historically funded up to 25% of WHO operations yet never led the agency, while states contributing far less wielded disproportionate influence. Washington, the official said, is “walking away from organizations that fail the United States”—not from global health leadership—pointing to new multiyear bilateral Global Health Cooperation agreements signed with dozens of countries in December 2025.
Trump first launched a WHO withdrawal during his first term in 2020, drawing fierce opposition from Democrats. Nancy Pelosi condemned the move at the time, warning of risks to global health. The process was later reversed when Joe Biden rejoined the WHO in 2021. The 2026 completion marks a decisive break from multilateral bodies seen by the administration as compromised—especially those that echo authoritarian narratives while failing democratic allies.
