The United States has formally completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), one year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order, on his first day in office in 2025, announcing the intention to leave the agency, reported Fox News.
The move ends more than seven decades of US membership in the UN‑affiliated health body, which Washington joined at its founding in 1948.
Trump’s executive order cited the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID‑19 pandemic" and what he described as “onerous payments" that did not reflect the contributions of other member states. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the State Department confirmed on Thursday that the withdrawal is now complete.
At the core of the decision is the administration’s longstanding dissatisfaction with the WHO’s early response to COVID‑19 and its relationship with China.
“The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID‑19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread," HHS said in a press release. “During that period, WHO leadership echoed and praised China's response despite evidence of early underreporting, suppression of information and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission."
A senior HHS official emphasized that the US intends to remain a global leader in public health despite leaving the organization. The official noted that the US has funded up to 25% of the WHO’s operations but “there has never been a US director of the organization," while countries contributing far less have held significant influence.
The official added that the US is “walking away" from organizations that “fail the United States," not from “being a global health leader," pointing to multiyear bilateral agreements on Global Health Cooperation signed with dozens of countries in December 2025.
Trump first initiated a WHO withdrawal in 2020 during his first term, drawing fierce criticism from Democrats. Then‑Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the move “true senselessness," warning that “millions of lives" were at risk. The move was not completed, and then-President Joe Biden rejoined the organization on his first day in office in 2021.