The United States said on Thursday that it has withdrawn from the World Health Organization, nearly a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process.

The US Department of State said the action “responds to the WHO’s failures during the Covid-19 pandemic and seeks to rectify the harm from those failures inflicted on the American people”.

Shortly after being sworn in for his second term as US president, Trump, on January 20, 2025, signed an order withdrawing his country from the WHO, citing alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the global health agency.

The previous Trump administration had taken steps to withdraw from the organisation in 2020 and had suspended funding to it. However, after taking charge as the 46th US president in 2021, Joe Biden reversed the withdrawal.

After Trump’s executive order last year, the international health agency had said it “regrets the announcement”.

On Thursday, Washington claimed that the WHO had “abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States”.

“Although the United States was a founding member and the WHO’s largest financial contributor, the organization pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests,” Washington alleged.

It added: “In doing so, the WHO obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical...

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