Cooperation with the US Is Becoming an Impossible Task

Unexpected, but not surprising. Donald Trump’s decision to halt U.S. funding of the World Health Organization falls into that category. Unexpected, because Trump decided to undermine the WHO in the middle of a global pandemic — a bit like putting the fire department on guard while the city is on fire. Not surprising, because this decision is in line with Trump’s approach to date: against multilateralism and convinced that the United States can do everything better by itself.

Trump’s questioning the situation is important. Indeed, the Chinese government initially kept quiet about the COVID-19 outbreak, and knowledge about how the WHO dealt with the information once it became known should definitely have been made available. Only in this case, the criticism of the WHO seems to be an excuse instead for Trump to avoid talking about his own failure. The U.S. press reported what Trump was doing in preparation for COVID-19 in February after he closed the U.S. border to travelers from China. Virtually nothing. In late February, Trump said the virus would “go away on its own.” In early March, he compared it to the average flu.

The question to pose to the Trump administration — preferably publicly and by countries that consider themselves allies of the United States — is whether America thinks that without the WHO, a pandemic will appear on the radar sooner or can be handled better that it has been. The problem with America’s criticism of international organizations is that is purely nonconstructive, and it never suggests any alternatives.

After nearly four years of Trump, and with the possibility of another four years, it must surely be clear to the rest of the world that cooperation with the United States is becoming an impossible task. Trump is a ticking time bomb and you don’t know when he will blow up international bridges.

Just as the COVID-19 crisis calls for better preparation for difficult times, this crisis can also be used to prepare for a world that is less reliant on the United States. The fact that the ventilators for Italy came from the East instead of the West already shows how the world is changing.

Even better would be a Europe that can stand on its own two feet, particularly with regard to health care. In the meantime, Trump’s destructiveness provides an opportunity. If Washington no longer wants to participate in the international control of disease, fine. Let Europe cough up the $500 million that Trump froze, and reclaim more influence in Geneva. National emergency budgets are already skyrocketing. We can just tack this on.