US officially leaves World Health Organization

Daily News Article   —   Posted on January 23, 2026

NOTE: The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations “responsible for international public health.”

(by Sarah Davis, The Hill) – After nearly 80 years of membership, the U.S. is officially no longer part of the World Health Organization (WHO).

President Trump initiated the removal process in an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term. He cited the organization’s alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and “other global health crises.” The order’s stated purpose reads:

Purpose. The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s 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. In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.

…The WHO is funded through voluntary donations and its member states’ dues, which vary based on each country’s population size and wealth.

The executive order contained directions to pause all U.S. funds to the WHO, reassign American contractors working for the organization and seek out other health organizations the U.S. could join instead.

In a press conference earlier this month, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his “hope that the U.S. will reconsider its decision and rejoin” the organization. …

“It’s not really the right decision, I want to say bluntly, because I believe that there are many things that are done through WHO that benefits the U.S., and only the WHO does, and especially the health security issues,” he said. “That’s why I say the U.S. cannot be safe without working with the WHO.”

Trump previously attempted to pull the U.S. out of the organization during his first presidential term. [He initiated the process only months before the end of his first term. Former President Biden then rejoined/cancelled the withdrawal before the end of the one-year waiting period required to leave the organization].

…In an asterisk note at the bottom of the WHO website’s member country list page, the international organization discloses that the United States expressed “its intention to withdraw from the World Health Organization, with a stated effective date of 22 January 2026.” …

On Thursday, the removal process was official.

While the WHO’s bylaws do not specify the process by which member states can leave the organization, the U.S. Congress provided terms for an American withdrawal process when it approved the country’s membership into the organization under Democratic President Harry S. Truman’s administration in 1948.

In the 1948 joint resolution, the lawmakers stated that the “United States reserves the right to withdraw” after providing the organization with one-year notice — a rule the Trump administration has followed.

The legislation also stipulated that the U.S. must have fulfilled all of its “financial obligations” to the WHO. While a two-year congressional budget had already allocated funding to WHO into 2025, Trump’s executive order required the cessation of U.S. funds to the organization.

In a document prepared and published by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service soon after Trump’s executive order was issued, the office acknowledged the “uncertainty” of whether the U.S. is required to pay its dues through the end of 2025 or into 2026, given the lack of direction from the WHO and the unspecific language in the U.S. requirements.

However, the State Department said in a statement to NPR that the U.S. “will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal.”

“The cost born by the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. economy after the WHO’s failure during the Covid pandemic — and since — has been too high as it is,” the department said.

Published at The Hill on Jan. 22, 2026. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.