A doctor set for a role in the Trump administration has given a fascinating insight into the president’s motives for pulling America out of the World Health Organization.
Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the WHO in one of his first acts as president, citing the agency’s close ties to China, failings during Covid and the fact he believes the US was being ripped off by the organization.
But speaking on DailyMail.com’s podcast Welcome to MAGAland this week, Dr Aseem Malhotra said there were also concerns among those in the incoming administration about the agency’s ties to commercial industry.
He highlighted how more than 80 percent of WHO’s funding relies on ‘voluntary contributions,’ meaning any amount of money given freely by donors, whether member states, NGOs, philanthropic organizations or other private entities.
This funding model contrasts to when the WHO first launched in 1948 and its budget was set by countries’ annual membership fees. Dr Malhotra said there were increasing concerns about influence and conflicts of interest.
Dr Malhotra, who is close friends with RFK Jr, Trump’s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, used the fact Bill Gates is one of the WHO’s largest donors as an example.
A doctor set for a role in the Trump administration has revealed why the President decided to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization , with Bill Gates’ involvement being a top concern
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $689 million to the United Nations agency in 2024, making the Gates’ the largest contributor after the US, which paid $958 million.
But Dr Malhotra highlights the billionaire is ‘heavily invested in ultra-processed foods’ which are fueling the global crisis of chronic diseases.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Q1 2024 filing shows holdings of $604 million in Coca-Cola shares and nearly $97 million in Kraft Heinz, the maker of Kraft mac and cheese, an array of processed meats like Oscar Mayer, and Jell-O.
Gates has also championed synthetic meat, investing in companies such as Beyond Meat, Hampton Creek Foods and Nature’s Fynd, despite growing concerns about the health effects of these ultraprocessed alternatives.
Dr Malhotra says Gates’ backing of ultra-processed junk foods presents a problem, as ‘these are the people that are really directing the policy of the WHO’.
Despite backing Kamala Harris during the 2024 election, Gates met with Trump in January after he was elected for a dinner in New York to fill him in on his work.
The Microsoft founder said that much of the three-hour discussion was focused on global health and elaborated on his efforts to combat HIV.
Another critical topic was the ongoing fight against polio, a disease that Gates’ foundation has long targeted for eradication.
Gates said Trump was ‘fascinated’ by the complexities of achieving eradication and, he claims, seemed eager to explore how his administration could support the effort.
The WHO gets funding from member states which pay annual membership dues.
Member countries pay what are called ‘assessed contributions,’ a percentage of a country’s GDP agreed upon every two years.
Usually, these sums cover less than a fifth of WHO’s total budget, meaning the WHO relies on ‘voluntary contributions’ – those given freely by donors.
These voluntary contributions are typically earmarked for specific projects or diseases, meaning WHO cannot freely decide how to use them.
For example, polio eradication has consistently been one of the WHO’s top funded programs, mainly because much of the Gates Foundation’s contributions have been directed to that cause.
Lawrence Gostin, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law told Euro News in 2023: ‘WHO therefore can’t set the global health agenda and has had to do the bidding of rich donors, not only rich nations in Europe and North America, but also rich philanthropies such as the Gates Foundation.’
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is responsible for more than 88 per cent of the total amount donated by philanthropic foundations to the health agency.
Other contributors include the Bloomberg Family Foundation (3.5 per cent), the UK’s Wellcome Trust (1.1 per cent) and the Rockefeller Foundation (0.8 per cent).
British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra , who also has close ties to RFK Jr, Trump’s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, highlights that billionaire Gates is one of WHO’s largest donors
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $689 million to the United Nations agency in 2024, making the Gates’ the largest contributor after the US
The WHO’s former director general Dr Margaret Chan previously hinted that the agency’s funding comes with strings attached.
In a conference in 2015, she explained: ‘As an organization, only 30 percent of my budget is predictable funds.
‘[The] other 70 percent I have to take a hat and go around the world to beg for money.
‘And when they give us the money, they are highly linked to their preferences what they like.’
Meanwhile, an article in Nature published in 2017 underscores why ‘time is ripe to reform the WHO’.
The piece reads: ‘One problem is that the WHO has become dangerously dependent on voluntary contributions, which now make up more than 80 percent of its overall budget.
‘Most of this money comes with strings attached by the funders to their own priorities, making it next to impossible for the WHO to have much of a say in its own agenda.
‘As a result, the WHO’s programs have proliferated but thinned.’
Dr Malhotra says Trump’s government ‘wants the WHO to exist and have a role, but until it becomes independent, I believe that, making a statement by withdrawing funding from the WHO from all these countries is the right move for sure. 100 percent.’
President Trump told a Las Vegas rally on Saturday he was considering U-turning on his decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization days after signing an executive order to do so
Trump’s executive order sets a 12-month notice period for the US to leave the United Nations health agency and stop all financial contributions to its work.
But already domestic health agencies such as the CDC have been told to sever communications with the agency.
The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18 percent of its overall funding. WHO’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
The US departure is likely to put at risk programs across the organization, according to several experts both inside and outside the WHO, notably those tackling tuberculosis, the world’s biggest infectious disease killer, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies.
‘This is the darkest day for global health I’ve ever experienced,’ said Gostin last week.
Trump’s order said the administration would cease negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty while the withdrawal is in progress.
US government personnel working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will look for partners to take over necessary WHO activities, according to the order.
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The government will review, rescind, and replace the 2024 US Global Health Security Strategy as soon as practicable, the order said.
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