Trump tells WHO to make 'substantive improvements' or permanently lose U.S. funding

President Trump is telling the World Health Organization that the U.S. will permanently withdraw its financial support as a result of the group’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic – unless it agrees to “substantive improvements.” 

Trump made the vow in a letter late Monday to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the same day the group held its annual meeting in Geneva for its reported 192 member states. 

Trump last month temporarily halted U.S. funding to the group, overseen by the United Nations.

He has repeatedly said that the U.S. gives the WHO about $450 million annually, compared to roughly $40 million a year from China, where the coronavirus started. 

Trump and other world leaders have said that China was slow to tell the world about the virus outbreak and that the WHO covered for the county.

"It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” Trump wrote on the four-page letter that he also posted on Twitter. “The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China.”

The letter lists roughly eight concerns and states the WHO must commit within 30 days to make substantial improvements.

"My administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization," Trump also wrote. "But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste."