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International criticism of Trump’s ending of US contribution by Trump | NOW

Internationally, Wednesday is reacted with consternation to the decision of the US President Donald Trump to freeze his country’s contribution to the health organization WHO during a pandemic.

The WHO itself has not yet responded, but UN Secretary General António Guterres said this is not the time to budge on the health organization’s funding. “Now is the time for unity and solidarity for the international community to stop this virus and its devastating consequences,” he said in a statement.

EU foreign chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter that Trump had “no reason” to freeze payments to WHO and “deeply regrets” the American move. The WHO is “more needed than ever” during the corona crisis, he said.

China urges the US to fulfill its obligations to the WHO. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the COVID-19 pandemic is at a critical point and Washington’s decision could have global implications.

Russia called Trump’s decision “very alarming” and “an example of a very selfish approach by the American authorities.”

Conservative Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he understood American criticism of the WHO, but said “he does not want to throw the child out with the bathwater.”

‘Outbreak twenty times bigger due to WHO’

Trump announced the freezing of the WHO contribution on Tuesday. The UN agency spread Chinese “disinformation” about the coronavirus, causing the global outbreak to become “twenty times the size” of what it would otherwise have been, the president said.

Among other things, he accuses the WHO of not properly investigating reports of a new virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The US President is widely criticized at home for the slow and inadequate attitude of his administration in the corona crisis, much to Trump’s anger.

Trump has elections in mind

The US presidential elections in November play a major role in imaging the US crisis. Trump was counting on his re-election on the economy, which turned out well before the outbreak. The corona virus knocked out that pillar of its campaign strategy.

Democrats blame Trump completely for the crisis, while Republicans try to pass it on to Democrats, critical media, critical US governors, China, and WHO. Polls suggest that the party that emerges best out of the crisis in public opinion is likely to win in November.

Prizes, attacks, prizes

It is striking that Trump alternately attacks and praises China. At the end of March, he said, for example, that he still has a lot of respect for the Chinese approach to the corona crisis.

The other side of the coin is that Chinese state media recently contributed to the dissemination of the conspiracy theory that the virus is American-made. Western intelligence and media have determined that China is indeed manipulating contamination and death rates.

The two superpowers are in a strained relationship – not only because of the corona virus, but also because of the trade war they are waging against each other.

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