President Donald Trump has decided to halt fundings to the WHO (World Health Organization) amid the coronavirus outbreak. On Tuesday, the POTUS announced that a review focusing on the agency's role in severely mismanaging and repressing the spread of the virus is carried out.
While Trump continues to angrily defend his treatment of what can be touted as the world global pandemic in decades, he has been strongly criticized for downplaying the crisis and ignoring several warnings from his administration about its potential danger. Trump doesn't refrain from blaming the news media and the WHO for the current situation of the nation.
Pointing out that China contributes about $40 million, Trump said the United States funds around $400 - $500 million to the WHO every year. The president blamed the agency for not getting medical experts into China to assess the situation and stand up to the country's lack of transparency, doing which could have helped to restrict the virus at its source with very little death.
Trump's decision to stop funding the WHO follows a series of questioning of world organizations that started even before the coronavirus pandemic. Trump raised questions about the country's funding to the UN (United Nations), dropped out of the global climate agreements and upbraided the World Trade Organization for ripping off America.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says Trump is simply trying to deflect blame from his own administration and trying to deviate attention to the mistakes made by WHO and China. The White House and its allies are leaving no stone unturned in their effort to find people who can take the blame for the fatal mistakes that Trump made in the initial stages of the pandemic, he told CNN Politics.
Aside from that, Murphy said it is ironic that President Trump and his allies are now indicting China or the WHO for not been strict with China when it was Trump who acted as the chief supporter of China during the initial stages of this crisis.
On Tuesday, Trump criticized the WHO for not acting appropriately, and not instituting a travel ban on people come from China at the right time. He described the WHO's decision to protest travel restrictions from China as "dangerous and costly."
Just days before instituting a ban on travelers from China, Trump ironically praised the country. On Jan. 24, he claimed China is working hard to restrict the spread of the virus via a tweet. He also wrote that America appreciates their efforts and transparency in the tweet.