WASHINGTON, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump attacked the United Nations health body as a Chinese “puppet” on Monday and confirmed he is considering slashing or canceling US support.
“They’re a puppet of China, they’re China-centric to put it nicer,” he said at the White House.
Trump said the United States pays around $450 million annually to the World Health Organization, the largest contribution of any country. Plans are being crafted to slash this because “we’re not treated right.”
“They gave us a lot of bad advice,” he said of the WHO.
Trump spoke as the WHO held its first annual assembly since the pandemic swept the world after originating in China, causing massive economic disruption and killing 316,000 people — close to a third of them in the United States.
Trump said China only pays about $40 million a year and one idea was for Washington to bring “our 450 down to 40,” but “some people thought that was too much.”
Meanwhile, speaking at the WHO general assembly, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar accused the world health agency of failing to obtain the information the world needed as the outbreak emerged.
“We must be frank about one of the primary reasons this outbreak spun out of control,” he said speaking on Monday. “There was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives.”
Without mentioning China by name, Azar said: “In an apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak, at least one member state made a mockery of their transparency obligations, with tremendous costs for the entire world.”
He said the United States has allocated US$9 billion for the global coronavirus response.
