“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics.”

WASHINGTON, DC— Today in a release with video remarks aired during the Seventy-Eighth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. defended the Trump Administration’s intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and shared his vision for the future of global health.

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics,” said Secretary Kennedy. “While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public.”

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14155 Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization which instructs the Federal Government to “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO.”

“Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it’s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance by and for its Member States,” Secretary Kennedy stated. “The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.”

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the Member States of the WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the Organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed program budget.

“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,” Secretary Kennedy added. “I urge the world’s health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call.”

Secretary Kennedy closed his remarks by inviting “health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation,” calling for his international colleagues to “create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable.”