Trump transition team plans immediate WHO withdrawal, expert says

WASHINGTON — Members of Donald Trump's presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organisation on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.

"I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration," said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on National and Global Health Law.

The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The plan, which aligns with Trump's longstanding criticism of the UN health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in US global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.

Trump has nominated several critics of the organisation to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major US health agencies including the CDC and FDA.

Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.

Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of Covid-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect US contributions to domestic health initiatives.

A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organisation.

Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the US time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalise a pandemic agreement by May 2025.

Critics warn that a US withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.

"The US would lose influence and clout in global health and China would fill the vacuum. I can't imagine a world without a robust WHO. But US withdrawal would severely weaken the agency," Gostin said.