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The UN body has received a formal request from Washington to withdraw next year as Trump orders a pause in WHO funding.
The United States will officially withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2026 after the UN body received a formal letter from US President Donald Trump this week.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday that the withdrawal was set in motion after Trump promised on Monday (his first day in office) to withdraw the United States from the WHO and end future funding for it. the organization.
“I can confirm that we have received the letter from the United States regarding withdrawal from the WHO. It is dated January 22, 2025. It would come into force in a year, on January 22, 2026,” Haq said.
Trump also ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the director of the US Government’s Office of Management and Budget to “pause the future transfer of any funds, support or resources from the US Government to the WHO.”
Washington withdrew all US government staff working with the WHO and ordered them to stop participating in negotiations on a WHO-led global treaty to address pandemics.
With the departure of the United States, the WHO will lose its most important financial support.
The United States contributes about 18 percent of the organization’s funding, which amounted to about $261 million between 2024 and 2025. That contribution is followed by China, in second place, with $181 million. The WHO’s loss of its biggest donor will impact the global health agency’s ability to tackle major crises, from tuberculosis to HIV/AIDS and global pandemics, experts say.
Trump had accused the WHO of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic during his first term and had submitted a request to withdraw from the organization in July 2020.
That withdrawal attempt was thwarted when Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, who immediately withdrew the order once he took office.
Many health experts have accused Trump and his administration of botching the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
On Tuesday, the WHO issued a statement regretting the announced departure of the United States and noting that its work “plays a crucial role in protecting the health and safety of the world’s people, including Americans.”
“We hope that the United States will reconsider and look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the United States and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the world,” the WHO said.
The United States joined the WHO in 1948 through joint resolutions of both houses of Congress, leaving a question about whether Trump can unilaterally withdraw the United States from membership without congressional approval, according to Jean Galbraith, a professor at the WHO. University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Trump’s Republican Party controls both the US Senate and House of Representatives, but the withdrawal could still be challenged in court, legal experts said. “Trump made the unilateral decision to withdraw from the WHO. But we joined the WHO in 1948 through an act of Congress. Trump needs congressional approval to withdraw,” Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, wrote on social media.
“Their decision is too catastrophic to be made without Congress and the courts. As director of a WHO center, I am considering filing a lawsuit,” Gostin said.
Trump made the unilateral decision to withdraw from the WHO. But we joined the WHO in 1948 through an act of Congress. Trump needs congressional approval to withdraw. Their decision is too catastrophic to be made without Congress and the courts. As director of a WHO center, I am considering filing a lawsuit.
—Lawrence Gostin (@LawrenceGostin) January 21, 2025
