Trump threatens to cut funds to WHO for being 'China centric' on COVID-19
Fox Business Network host Charles Payne reacts to the coronavirus news of the day on 'Fox & Friends.'
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
President Trump on Friday teased an announcement on the World Health Organization (WHO) “sometime next week” after suggesting his administration might cut U.S. funding to the WHO over frustration with the organization throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are going to have an announcement on the World Health Organization sometime next week," Trump said at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Friday afternoon. "As you know, we have given them approximately $500 million a year, and we are going to be talking about that subject next week. We'll have a lot to say about it.”
WHO DIRECTOR HITS BACK AT TRUMP THREAT TO DEFUND AGENCY
Later during the briefing, the president was asked about the announcement, saying he would discuss it next week “in great detail,” and that “he didn’t want to do it today, on Good Friday... or before we have all the facts.”
“We send $300 to $500 million a year,” Trump said. “China has been paying them less than $40 million over the years. We’re paying them more than 10 times [that of] China.”
He added that the World Health Organization is “very, very China-centric.”
The United States is the single largest contributor to the WHO. The most recent invoice from the WHO to the United States, which is one of many countries that fund the organization, was for nearly $116 million per year. The United States also voluntarily gives between approximately $100 million and $400 million more per year to the WHO for specific projects -- contributions that totaled over $400 million in 2017, the most recent year for which figures are available.
That means the United States contributed more than $500 million in total to the WHO that year, which is just under one-fourth of the organization's yearly budget. The WHO's total budget for 2016 and 2017 combined was over $4 billion.
“China always seems to get the better of the argument and I don’t like that,” Trump continued. “I don’t think it’s appropriate and I don’t think it’s fair to the American people.” Trump said that he has expressed that sentiment to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“I think he’s a very nice man, I liked him,” Trump said of Tedros. “But we want to make sure money is properly spent.”
The president’s comments come after he suggested earlier this week that he may put a “very powerful hold” on funding to the WHO.
But Tedros fired back at Trump's threat to cut off U.S. funding in a statement this week.
TRUMP SAYS US MAY PUT A 'VERY POWERFUL HOLD' ON FUNDING TO WHO AMID CORONAVIRUS
“If you don’t want many more body bags you refrain from politicizing it -- please quarantine politicizing COVID,” Tedros told reporters in a lengthy answer when asked about Trump’s criticism of the agency.
"My short message is please quarantine politicizing COVID == the unity of your country will be very important to defeat this dangerous virus. Without unity we assure you even any country that may have a better system will be in more trouble. That’s our message," Tedros added.
The WHO has increasingly been the focus of questions about its response to the coronavirus pandemic, including information it tweeted in January that quoted “preliminary” findings from Chinese authorities that downplayed the seriousness of the virus that has since turned into a pandemic, shutting down daily life around the globe.
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox