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United States (US) President Donald Trump has defended his decision to withdraw the United States (US) from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to official statements, the US formally exited the WHO on January 22, 2026, after a one-year withdrawal process that began when Trump signed an executive order in 2025.
Before the withdrawal was finalised, Trump’s administration accused the WHO of being too slow in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and overly deferential to China during the early stages of the pandemic.
It also alleged a lack of transparency, arguing that the organisation failed to provide timely and accurate information about the outbreak.
Trump’s administration further said that the US’s financial contribution to the WHO was disproportionately high compared to those of countries such as China, describing the arrangement as unfair.
While speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump expressed no regret about leaving the United Nations (UN) health agency. The US President said the US was paying 500 million dollars annually to the WHO and accused the agency of withholding information relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
.@POTUS says he has no regrets in pulling out of the World Health Organization: “We were paying, for let’s say 350 million people, we were paying $500M a year… and China was paying $39M a year for 1.4 billion people.”
“On Covid, they were totally wrong.” pic.twitter.com/JT2JDCsiiV
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 11, 2026
“No, I’m glad. So, we were paying the World Health Organisation 500 million dollars a year. Look, it’s a lot of money, but in the overall scope it’s not that much, but it’s a lot of money. And we weren’t being treated well. And they were making the wrong diagnoses. I was the one who said it came from Wuhan. They didn’t say that. They refused to say that because they were totally owned by China,” said Trump.
“So, I was saying it came from Wuhan. They didn’t want to say that. Now it’s turned out, I think it’s been conclusive that it came from Wuhan. But I said that on the first day. Because I saw satellite pictures with body bags all over Wuhan. Literally all over Wuhan. So I said that. They lied to me. Or they didn’t know. So, we were paying for, let’s say, 350 million people. We were paying 500 million dollars a year to the World Health Organisation. That’s a lot of money.”
Donald Trump also spoke about the Hantavirus infection, saying it is not easily transmissible between people and has existed for many years. He made the remarks after reports of a recent outbreak linked to a cruise ship incident in which three passengers died after contracting the virus.
“Now, the one thing with this one is that it’s much harder to catch. And we’ve had it for a long time. It’s been around for a long time. People are very familiar with it. So, you know, I hope it’s fine. All I can do is everything that a president can do. Which is actually somewhat limited. But it seems like it is not easy to spread. In fact, it’s in certain ways very hard to spread. We’ve lived with it for years, many years,” Trump added.
The WHO has consistently said that the Hantavirus infection is not easily transmitted from human to human in most situations.
