Trump threatens permanent freeze on WHO funding without 'major' reforms within 30 days

President Trump on Monday threatened to permanently halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) if the body does not commit to "major substantive improvements" in the next 30 days.

The president, in a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, levied a series of allegations that the global health entity overlooked or ignored various warning signs about the coronavirus and criticized its stance toward China during the pandemic.

"We do not have time to waste," he wrote. "That is why it is my duty, as President of the United Staes, to inform you that, if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization."

"I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests," he added.

The Trump administration is already in touch with the WHO about desired reforms, the president wrote, but he did not specify what those reform would be other than to say they would have to be.

The president's letter, which he tweeted late Monday night, raised more than a dozen specific instances where he argued the WHO had either missed warning signs of the coronavirus outbreak or offered praise for China.

Trump criticized the WHO for praising China's domestic travel restrictions but later questioning his administration's international travel restrictions. The president also cited the WHO's assertion in January that the virus could not be spread through human-to-human transmission.

“Throughout this crisis the World Health Organization has been curiously insistent on praising China for its alleged ‘transparency,’” Trump wrote, an ironic criticism given Trump also praised China and its president for their transparency in a Jan. 24 tweet.