Donald Trump, the President of the United States, continues to criticize the World Health Organization (WHO), labeling it as a ‘Pipe organ’ for China amid the Coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier in April, Trump suspended payments of nearly $500 million to the WHO, alleging that the organization collaborated with China to suppress the spread of the virus.
Trump has also tasked US intelligence agencies with investigating whether China and the WHO concealed information about the initial spread of COVID-19, a disease that has impacted 3,207,285 people worldwide, resulting in 227,369 deaths.
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, Trump and other global leaders have criticized China for its lack of transparency and for concealing the true number of coronavirus cases in China.
Trump, on Wednesday, criticized the WHO and China, stating that China “misled us.” He emphasized that the WHO should have prioritized the interests of the US and other nations over China. Trump highlighted the significant discrepancy in payments, with the US contributing approximately $500 million to the WHO compared to China’s contribution of around $38 million.
“They must have known more than they knew,” he told reporters during a meeting with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in the Oval Office. “We knew things that they didn’t know, and either they didn’t know or they didn’t tell us. Right now, they’re literally a pipe organ for China, that’s the way I view it,” the president remarked.
“Despite the difference in payments, they seem to work for China, and they should have been in there early on. They should have known what was going on and they should have been able to stop it,” Trump concluded.