Nikki Haley backs Trump threat to cut WHO funding

Nikki Haley (Official photo)

President Trump was right to threaten the World Health Organization's funding over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, contends former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Trump has criticized the "China-centric" reponse of the organization and its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to the pandemic. The president said the U.S. financial contribution to the international organization, which is part of the United Nations, is under review.

"I think the president’s right to say we're going to withhold money until we get some accountability out of this," Haley said in an interview Monday with Fox News, the Washington Examiner reported.

"And, you know, having worked with many of these U.N. agencies, they don’t like being told what to do, but they always have their hand out waiting for the money," she added.

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"And, at the end of the day, this is — our citizens deserve to know that they’re getting a return on their investment," said the former South Carolina governor.

Trump wrote on Twitter last Tuesday: "The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look."

Haley said that over the past few years, "we have seen China continue to show influence so that they can manipulate where the decisions are coming out."

She noted the WHO promoted a study from China that claimed the coronavirus could not spread between humans.

In addition, she pointed out, the organization ignored warnings from Taiwan about the virus because China does not recognize the nation's independence.

Haley wants a full probe of the WHO's response to the pandemic.

More than 1.9 million coronavirus infections have been recorded worldwide, with 118,854 deaths and 446,860 recovered.

'Beijing's handmaid'

The WHO "has acted as Beijing's handmaid," contended Nicholas Eberstadt and and Dan Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute in a New York Post opinion column April 2.

They acknowledged that the "fog of war obscures much about the novel coronavirus pandemic."

"But two facts seem absolutely certain," they said. "First, China’s Communist authorities have lied, concealed and misled about the origins of the epidemic and the toll of the virus in China. Second, the World Health Organization has acted as Beijing’s handmaid."

The writers concluded that, consequently, "the global toll of the tragedy will be much greater than it need have been."

The numbers of infections and deaths were undercounted. And then there was the Chinese Communist Party's disinformation campaign, in which it claimed the virus came from America.

"Which brings us to the WHO’s malfeasance in this affair," Eberstadt and Blumenthal said. "The WHO should have known at the outset that it was dealing with a bad-faith actor in Beijing. Yet, instead of immediately insisting upon access, openness and transparency from China, WHO leadership followed the Chinese lead and at times even took the Chinese line."

Trump noted WHO stated on Feb. 3 there was no need for widespread travel restrictions to stop the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China.

Sen. Marthy McSally, R-Ariz., has called for the resignation of the WHO director.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wants a Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation into WHO's actions.

Fox News reported former national security adviser John Bolton called the WHO director an "accomplice to China's massive coverup" and said he should resign.