The World Health Organization (WHO) is teetering on the brink of collapse following the United States’ abrupt withdrawal of financial support, a move announced by President Donald Trump on February 20, 2025, and executed swiftly thereafter. The U.S., historically the WHO’s largest single donor, had been pumping roughly $500 million annually into the agency—about 15% of its $4 billion budget. With that lifeline severed, the WHO’s ability to fund its sprawling operations, from disease surveillance to vaccine programs, has imploded, leaving staff unpaid and offices shuttered. Posts on X and reports from Reuters on February 26, 2025, paint a grim picture: a once-mighty global health body now slashing programs and begging for emergency cash from reluctant allies like the EU and China.
 

Trump’s decision, cheered by his base as a blow to “globalist overreach,” stems from long-simmering grievances—amplified during his first term—over the WHO’s alleged coziness with Beijing and its botched COVID-19 response. The U.S. exit, formalized after a 2024 campaign promise to “defund the WHO and bring health sovereignty home,” has triggered a domino effect: other nations, like Brazil and India, are reportedly scaling back contributions, citing America’s departure as justification. The WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned in a February 25 presser that the agency faces “catastrophic cuts” without $1 billion in immediate bridge funding—a plea met with skepticism from a fractured donor pool. For an organization already criticized for inefficiency, this cash crisis could be the death knell, forcing it to abandon ambitious initiatives like universal health coverage.
 

The collapse is a double-edged sword for global health. On one hand, Trump allies like RFK Jr., now at HHS, hail it as a win for national control over public health, freeing up U.S. dollars—$583 million in FY 2024 alone—for domestic priorities like chronic disease prevention. On the other, critics warn of a vacuum that could cripple responses to future pandemics, with the WHO’s early-warning systems and research arms now on life support. Developing nations, reliant on WHO aid for everything from malaria nets to maternal care, face the brunt, with Uganda’s health minister lamenting on February 27, 2025, that “we’re being left to fend for ourselves.” Whether this marks the end of the WHO or a radical downsizing, one thing’s clear: America’s money was the glue holding it together, and without it, the cracks are splitting wide open.