Trump declares U.S. will withdraw from the World Health Organization.
President Trump is making good on his pre-election pledge to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
In one of many orders issued after his inauguration, he announced the start of the process for terminating U.S. membership in the U.N. agency that oversees global health issues.
He's repeatedly criticized the organization for being too slow to respond to the pandemic and being " owned and controlled by China .
"World Health ripped us off," Trump said during an extended, relaxed discussion with reporters as he signed executive actions.
That's the time frame the U.S. set for any future withdrawal when it joined the global health body in 1948.
"This is the most cataclysmic decision," says Lawrence Gostin , professor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of WHO's Center on Global Health Law. »