By Kevin Akor
WASHINGTON — The United States officially terminated its membership in the World Health Organization on Thursday, fulfilling a campaign cornerstone of the Trump administration and marking a seismic shift in global health policy.
In a joint statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the U.S. has ceased all funding and staffing for the international body, effective immediately. The move follows Executive Order 14155, signed by President Trump on his first day in office.
“Today, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), freeing itself from its constraints,” the secretaries said in the statement. “This action responds to the WHO’s failures during the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to rectify the harm from those failures inflicted on the American people. Promises made, promises kept.”
The administration’s exit marks the end of a relationship that dates back to the WHO’s founding in 1948. Despite the U.S. historically serving as the organization’s largest financial contributor, Rubio and Kennedy characterized the Geneva-based group as a “bloated and inefficient bureaucracy” that had become “beyond repair.”
The secretaries alleged the WHO pursued a politicized agenda driven by nations hostile to U.S. interests, specifically accusing the organization of obstructing the sharing of critical data during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The departure has already been met with friction in Geneva. According to the joint statement, the WHO has refused to return the American flag that flew at its headquarters, claiming the U.S. has not followed proper withdrawal protocols and owes the organization outstanding compensation.
“Even on our way out of the organization, the WHO tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it,” the statement read. “The insults to America continue.”
Critics of the withdrawal express concern that the move could leave the U.S. isolated during future outbreaks, but the administration signaled a pivot toward “results-driven partnerships” rather than multilateralism.
“We will continue to lead the world in public health… through direct, bilateral partnerships,” Rubio and Kennedy stated. “We will get our flag back for the Americans who died alone in nursing homes, the small businesses devastated by WHO-driven restrictions, and the American lives shattered by this organization’s inactivity.”
The State Department confirmed that further engagement with the WHO will be strictly limited to administrative tasks necessary to finalize the exit.
