Donald Trump's transition team is preparing to terminate US membership in the World Health Organization (WHO) on the first day of his second term, Reuters reported, citing a health legal expert.
"I have reliable information that he plans to withdraw (the US) probably on the first day or early in his administration," said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington. Gostin is also director of the WHO's Center for Collaboration on National and Global Medical Law.
The British newspaper "Financial Times" was the first to report Trump's plans, citing two experts, Reuters noted. The World Health Organization said Trump's team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plan, which echoes the Republican leader's long-standing criticism of the UN health agency, would set off a dramatic U.S. shift in global health policy and isolate Washington from international efforts to combat pandemics, Reuters predicted.
Trump has nominated several WHO opponents to top public health posts, including vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy Jr. was nominated to be secretary of health and humanitarian affairs – a post that oversees all major US health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Trump initiated the termination of the US membership in the WHO in 2020, which was scheduled to take effect within a year. Six months later, however, his successor in the White House, Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump claims that the WHO failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of the coronavirus. He has repeatedly called the WHO "Beijing's puppet" and promised to redirect US contributions to domestic health initiatives.
Meanwhile, the trial of the suspect in the second assassination attempt on Trump this year, Ryan Routh, was postponed until September 2025, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA, citing a court order.
Lawyers for Routh, 58, who is suspected of taking a position armed with a rifle near one of Trump's golf courses in the US state of Florida on September 15, requested a postponement of the trial, which was scheduled to begin on February 10 next year. Their reason was that they need to review a huge amount of evidence in the case.
Florida District Judge Eileen Cannon granted the request to postpone the trial. However, she declared the defense's request for a postponement to December 2025 "excessive" and scheduled the jury trial for September 8.