Withdraw from the World Health Organization

Trump administration officials said in January that they had completed the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to leave the global health agency, gave the one-year notice of withdrawal on his first day of his second term in office Jan. 20, 2025. The Department of Health and Human Services said that exit is now complete. The U.S. had been a member since 1948.

Trump said he was leaving the WHO because of "mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic." The WHO said it stood by its response to "the unprecedented global health crisis."

The WHO said that as of the end of January, the U.S. owes about $280 million to the agency. WHO members pay annual dues calculated by the United Nations based mainly on the country's gross domestic product.

Medical groups and experts criticized the Trump administration's action.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America said the move will jeopardize virus surveillance for the U.S., including the global platform to monitor flu cases and share data used to develop early vaccines.

"Whether facing emerging threats like Ebola or the persistent burden of annual flu outbreaks, international tracking is essential," the group's president Dr. Ronald G. Nahass said in a Jan. 22 statement. 

Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration, said on Threads that walking away from the WHO gives the U.S. less say about responding to outbreaks.

"History shows what cooperation can achieve," Frieden said. Through WHO, the world eradicated smallpox and reduced millions of preventable deaths. Those successes protected Americans too."

Trump campaigned on a promise to withdraw from the WHO. We rate this Promise Kept.

Within hours of his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing the United States' withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

His order follows up on one of 75 campaign promises that PolitiFact will track on the MAGA-Meter. Over the next four years, we will periodically evaluate the new administration's progress on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term, and Joe Biden.

In the Jan. 20 order, Trump wrote the U.S. was withdrawing because of the WHO's alleged "mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states."

The order echoes Trump's previous criticisms of the organization during his first term, claiming the WHO responded too slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic and was under China's control. 

Trump's order also said the WHO "unfairly" demanded payments from the U.S. "far out of proportion with other countries' assessed payments."

Payments to the organization are based on a country's population and income, with the U.S. typically being the largest contributor. The U.S. made about $1.29 billion in voluntary and mandatory payments to the WHO in 2022 and 2023, according to The Washington Post. 

Trump's order calls for pausing all U.S. funding and support to the WHO, and the recall and reassignment of government personnel or contractors currently working with the organization. It directs the National Security Council to "establish directorates and coordinating mechanisms" to safeguard public health and the secretary of state to identify international and domestic organizations that can assume "necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO." 

The WHO issued a statement following Trump's ordering, saying it "regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the organization" and that it hopes the U.S. reconsiders withdrawing. 

The Associated Press reported that leaving the organization could put the U.S. in a dangerous position to emerging health threats. For instance, it would cut off the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from participating in WHO-led efforts, such as determining the ingredients in the yearly flu vaccines, and from accessing genetic databases run by the WHO, which is often used in the development of vaccines and medicines. 

Trump began the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO in 2020, but former President Joe Biden reversed it in 2021. 

Leaving the WHO takes time. The WHO's constitution includes a provision the U.S. added in 1948 requiring a country to provide a one-year notice before withdrawing, and to pay any outstanding financial obligations for the current fiscal year.

The executive order acts as that notice.

It's unknown if Trump's order is enough to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO since it joined the organization in 1948 through a joint resolution of Congress. The resolution does not mention if a withdrawal can be implemented by the president alone or jointly with Congress, which is controlled in both chambers by Republicans.

Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor and director of the university's WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law, told The Hill his legal team may challenge Trump's order in court. 

Although Trump has begun the process for the U.S. to leave the WHO, it's unclear if congressional approval is also required. Even if Trump can withdraw the U.S. from the WHO on his own, it will be at least a year before that process is complete. For now, we rate this promise In the Works.