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The US will officially leave the World Health Organization on Thursday, a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order governing the withdrawal.
Trump announced on the first day of his new presidency that the US would leave the United Nations health agency, but under US law the country must give a year’s notice and pay all outstanding fees before officially leaving.
According to Reuters, the WHO said the US has not yet paid the compensation it owes for 2024 and 2025, totaling about $260 million. Member states will discuss the US departure and how to handle it at the WHO Executive Board meeting in February, the outlet reported.
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U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Ford River Rouge Complex on January 13, 2026 in Dearborn, Michigan. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently urged the US to reconsider its withdrawal, calling it a global loss.
“I hope the US will reconsider and rejoin the WHO,” he said at a news conference earlier this month. “Withdrawing from the WHO is a loss for the United States, and a loss for the rest of the world.”
In May, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recorded a video message to the World Health Assembly explaining why Trump chose to withdraw the US from the WHO.
“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucracy, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics,” Kennedy said.
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. previously said the World Health Organization was “muddled in red tape.” (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, which funds global health initiatives including some of the WHO’s work, said in an interview with Reuters that he does not expect the US to immediately reconsider its decision.
“I don’t think the US will return to the WHO in the near future,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses journalists after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on December 18, 2025 in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Trump initially began extricating the US from the organization in 2020, but President Joe Biden reversed course after taking office in 2021.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
