The US president has instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organisation over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Trump, the WHO prevented transparency over the outbreak and the United States will now “discuss what we do with all that money that goes to the WHO.”
The deadly virus has already killed more than 125,000 people and infected nearly two million worldwide since it first emerged in China late last year.
At his daily White House briefing, Mr. Trump said the group had promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak of the virus than otherwise would have occurred.
The US is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million (£316m) in 2019, roughly 15 percent of its budget.
The hold on funding was expected, as the US has initially threatened to stop funding the organization, earlier this month.
Announcing the move, Mr. Trump said “there was credible” information in December to suspect human-to-human transmission and the WHO did not respond appropriately.
“So much death has been caused by their mistakes,” Mr. Trump said.
But the president said the US would continue to engage with the organization in pursuit of what he called meaningful reforms.
