HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has doubled down on President Donald Trump’s plans for the U.S. to exit the World Health Organization by Jan. 22, 2026.
“Global cooperation on health is still critically important to President Trump and myself, but it isn’t working very well under the WHO as the failures of the COVID era demonstrate,” Mr. Kennedy said in a May 20 video that aired during the 78th World Health Assembly. “I urge the world’s health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call.”
President Trump signed a Jan. 20 executive order removing the U.S. from WHO due to its “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member state.”
WHO expressed a desire to maintain its longstanding partnership with the U.S. and emphasized the importance of ongoing engagement in a May 20 statement shared with Becker’s.
“We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe,” the organization said.
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