It's been a drama that's rivaled most primetime TV shows: America versus the World Health Organization (WHO). President Trump seems to be signaling a finale to the relationship -- announcing Friday that he was permanently slashing funding to the group who helped China keep the world in the dark about the deadly coronavirus. Now, a handful of days before his deadline to WHO leaders for a complete investigation, the president has decided it's never to early to end a bad investment.
"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," Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden. "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?" he added. "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."
In a letter to WHO chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the president laid out four pages of WHO missteps and abuses and asked for a commitment to "substantive improvements within the next 30 days." If not, he warned, "I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership to the organization... that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests."
So far, Trump insists, there's been no such commitment. The organization "failed" to reform, the president said, giving him no choice but to "redirect those funds to other worldwide and deserving" groups. To pro-lifers, the news came as an even greater relief, since WHO has been using U.S. tax dollars to promote its radical pro-abortion, anti-family agenda for years. America should have never been underwriting an already dubious, China-centric organization whose values are completely at odds with the administration's.
Of course, now that WHO's largest donor is heading for the exit, Ghebreyesus is desperately trying to launch a last-minute charm offensive, thanking America for its "immense" generosity. "It is WHO's wish for this collaboration to continue," he said. No doubt, since the group will be scrambling to make up America's mammoth contribution. And what will Americans miss out on? Not much. When it wasn't busy ignoring the greatest health crisis in 100 years, WHO was a virtual satellite office of the social Left -- peddling everything from extremely controversial sex ed and gender confusion to global abortion. Good riddance, indeed!
