Trump Says He May Consider Rejoining World Health Organization

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he may consider rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO).

“I withdrew from the World Health Organization, where we paid $500 million a year, and China paid $39 million here, despite a much larger population. … but maybe we would consider doing it again,” Trump said at ‘No tax on tips’ rally in Las Vegas.

After Trump was sworn in Monday for a second term, he signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the WHO.

“World Health ripped us off. Everybody rips off the United States, and that’s it. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump told reporters Monday while signing executive orders. He said the US paid $500 million to the UN agency. “Seemed a little unfair to me, so that wasn’t the reason, but I dropped out … China pays $39 million, and we pay $500 million, and China’s a bigger country.”

Turning to Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to expand investments and trade with the US by $600 billion in the next four years, Trump said he would ask the Saudis for more investment.

“I believe they’ll make it a trillion. I’m going to ask him to make it 1 trillion. What the hell the money means? Nothing. You know, where they made their money from liquid gold, right? They got a lot of liquid gold,” he said.

During his first tenure (2017-2021), Trump made his first abroad trip to Saudi Arabia, reflecting warm bilateral ties. He earlier told reporters that he would repeat the visit to the kingdom if it agreed to purchase American products worth up to $500 billion.