KEY POINTS:
• The United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization on January 22, 2026, one year after President Trump signed Executive Order 14155, according to the United Nations and the White House.
• The executive order cited WHO’s handling of COVID-19, failure to adopt reforms, and what the administration called “unfairly onerous payments” compared to other member states, according to the White House.
• The U.S. contributed approximately $1.284 billion to WHO in 2022-2023 and represented roughly 18% of the organization’s budget, according to WHO and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Legal experts dispute whether the withdrawal is lawful, noting that a 1948 Congressional joint resolution requires the U.S. to pay all outstanding dues before departing—obligations the State Department has said it will not meet.
The United States officially departed the World Health Organization on January 22, 2026, marking the culmination of a year-long withdrawal process initiated by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq confirmed to reporters in January 2025 that the UN had received the formal withdrawal letter, stating it “would take effect a year from yesterday, on 22 January 2026,” according to Al Jazeera.
This marks the second time President Trump has ordered U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, according to the Congressional Research Service. During his first term, Trump initiated withdrawal in July 2020, but President Biden reversed the decision upon taking office in January 2021.
The executive order’s stated justifications
The White House published Executive Order 14155 on January 20, 2025, citing four primary reasons for departure. The order stated that the U.S. had previously notified of withdrawal “due to the organization’s 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 states.”
The executive order also criticized WHO’s financial arrangements, stating: “The WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.”
The order directed immediate actions including pausing “the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO,” recalling U.S. government personnel working with WHO, and ceasing negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, according to the White House document.
Financial stakes and legal questions
The departure removes WHO’s largest national contributor. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. contributed approximately $1.284 billion to WHO during the 2022-2023 biennium. WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic stated that the U.S. contributed 18% of the organization’s budget in 2023, according to NewsNation.
The withdrawal faces legal complications rooted in the 1948 Congressional joint resolution that authorized U.S. membership. According to the Congressional Research Service, this law requires both one-year notice and that “the financial obligations of the United States to the Organization shall be met in full for the Organization’s current fiscal year.”
NPR reported that the U.S. owes approximately $278 million in assessed contributions for the 2024-2025 period. The State Department told NPR: “The United States will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal.”
Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, characterized leaving without paying as “unlawful” in comments to NPR, but added: “I don’t think there’s anything stopping the president, because there’s no pending litigation and there’s no movement in Congress to stop him.”
Steven Solomon, WHO’s principal legal officer, told NPR that the WHO Constitution contains no withdrawal clause by design, but the U.S. in 1948 had reserved “for itself, alone among countries, the right to withdraw.” Solomon stated that WHO member states would determine if and when the withdrawal becomes effective with or without dues payment.
WHO’s response
WHO issued a statement on January 21, 2025, expressing regret over the decision, according to the organization’s website. The statement noted that “the United States was a founding member of WHO in 1948” and emphasized that “for over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged reconsideration at a press conference, according to NPR’s January 2026 reporting. “I hope the U.S. will reconsider its decision and rejoin,” Tedros said. “It’s not about money. Money can be adjusted. It’s about cooperation.” He characterized the withdrawal as a “lose-lose” situation.
Congressional division
Congressional reaction split along partisan lines, according to press releases from lawmakers. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) led a letter with 42 Congressional colleagues on January 31, 2025, urging President Trump to “reconsider your decision so that the United States can retain its leadership in global health,” according to his office’s press release. The letter noted that “WHO supports research at 72 centers across eighteen states.”
However, NPR reported that “with little support for the WHO among Republicans—who control both the House and the Senate—there has been no push from Congress to hold the country to the provision set out by their forerunners.” No legislation blocking the withdrawal advanced in Congress.
Expert warnings
Public health experts expressed concern about the implications. Dr. Judd Walson of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health stated in an interview published by the university that without WHO membership, the U.S. would lose access to critical disease surveillance data and coordination mechanisms. “If we think it’s expensive to be part of the WHO, just wait until we aren’t part of the WHO,” Walson said.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America issued a statement on January 22, 2026, calling the withdrawal “a shortsighted and misguided abandonment of our global health commitments.” The statement warned that the U.S. “will no longer participate in the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, the vital platform for monitoring flu cases and sharing data and viral samples used to develop yearly flu vaccines.”
A peer-reviewed article published in PubMed Central noted that the U.S. had already begun disengaging prior to the formal withdrawal, “preventing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees from co-authoring papers with the WHO staff.”
International reaction
China moved to position itself as a supporter of WHO following the U.S. announcement. At a press conference on January 21, 2025, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated that the role of WHO should be “strengthened rather than weakened” and that “China will, as always, support WHO in fulfilling its duty,” according to reporting cited by Wikipedia.
Argentina announced its own withdrawal on February 5, 2025, according to the law firm Winston & Strawn, with President Javier Milei citing WHO’s endorsement of pandemic lockdowns as causing “great economic damage.”
Looking ahead
WHO has embarked on efforts to secure alternative funding. According to an October 2024 WHO press release, the organization received approximately $1 billion in new and reaffirmed funding commitments at the World Health Summit in Berlin, including nearly $400 million from Germany over four years. However, the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that the Biden administration had not announced additional pledges before leaving office, and the Trump administration has ceased all funding.
The WHO Executive Board and World Health Assembly are expected to address the status of U.S. withdrawal and outstanding dues at upcoming meetings, according to NPR.
