Donald Trump’s Next Victim is the WHO

But the threats are just a diversionary tactic.

In a four-page document Donald Trump, or rather his staff, laid out why they feel the World Health Organization (WHO) is being influenced by China amid the ongoing pandemic. The announcement states that unless the WHO takes action, the U.S. will permanently cut off its funding of the WHO.

Diversionary Tactic

It’s obvious the whole thing is a diversionary tactic in the lead-up to the upcoming presidential election. Donald Trump needs to show decisiveness to voters who have just been informed by Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell that the U.S. economy is in danger of shrinking 30% and reaching 25% unemployment as early as the second quarter of this year.

Few politicians survive such forecasts. They are definitely not forecasts that help you get reelected.

The battle of strength between China and the U.S. has always been about who wins the public opinion. The WHO and the U.N. are not highly valued among Trump’s voters and are therefore logical next victims. In shifting the focus to the WHO and China and pointing to them as the problem, the attention is diverted away from the fact that it’s Donald Trump’s actions that are effectively killing businesses and jobs in the U.S.

Diplomatic Principles

The WHO’s approach to China is the only reasonable one; underpinned by diplomatic principles.

Even if it hurt to hear the WHO praise China’s transparency and actions during the initial phases of the pandemic, it was one of the few ways to make a country like China compliant. And compliance is a necessity. A new virus that develops into a pandemic requires as open a dialogue as possible. Especially when the country of origin of the virus is a dictatorship. Which, contrary to what the U.S. is trying to claim, is completely different from being influenced by a dictatorship.