President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office, several of which were intended to reinstate various policies from his first term that had been rescinded or rolled back by former President Joe Biden.

Among those was an order announcing the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization, or WHO, according to Breitbart.

Trump previously cut ties with the WHO during the 2020 pandemic, but Biden immediately rejoined the international body as soon as he took office four years ago.

"Ooh, that's a big one"

On Monday afternoon, during a lull in the day's inauguration activities, President Trump took some time to sign an assortment of executive orders while simultaneously conducting an impromptu press conference with reporters in the Oval Office.

"Ooh, that's a big one," Trump said when handed the folder containing an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO. "So, we paid $500 million to [the] World Health Organization when I was here, and I terminated it."

"China, with 1.4 billion people, we have 350 [million] -- nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But, let’s say we have 325 [million], they have 1.4 billion, they were paying $39 million, we were paying $500 million," he continued.

"Seemed a little unfair to me, so that wasn’t the reason, but I dropped out," the president said.

Trump went on to claim that the WHO asked Trump to rejoin for just $39 million, which he still thought was too high in comparison to China's contributions, then added, "When Biden came back, they came back for $500 million. He knew that you could’ve come back for $39 million. They wanted us back so badly, so we’ll see what happens."

🚨 President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization pic.twitter.com/YyKYMP53Ur

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2025

Withdrawal from the WHO

The executive order states: "The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states."

"In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO," the order continued.

As such, President Trump revoked President Biden's letter and executive action to rejoin the WHO in 2021 and instructed relevant bodies within his administration to take whatever actions are deemed "necessary and appropriate to safeguard public health and fortify biosecurity."

Further, he directed the State Department and Office of Management and Budget to "take appropriate measures, with all practicable speed, to: (i) pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO; (ii) recall and reassign United States Government personnel or contractors working in any capacity with the WHO; and (iii) identify credible and transparent United States and international partners to assume necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO."

Trump's order also called for a new "U.S. Global Health Security Strategy as soon as practicable," directed the secretary of State to inform the United Nations and other relevant organizations of the WHO withdrawal, and to "cease negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations," as those ostensibly global agreements "will have no binding force on the United States."