On Inauguration Day, President Trump signed 26 Executive Orders (EOs), among them perhaps the most significant for medical freedom was the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), an act which laid to rest any lingering doubts about U.S. subordination to the WHO.

Trump’s EO directly addressed these concerns by nullifying the International Health Regulations (IHR) and rejecting the proposed International Pandemic Treaty, both of which aimed to expand the WHO’s reach in responding to global health crises, referred to as Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC).

While Trump’s publicly justified the withdrawal by criticizing the WHO’s management and highlighting the disproportionate financial burden on the United States compared to other member countries, it is reasonable to infer that maintaining American sovereignty also played a key role in his decision. During a declared PHEIC, the WHO has the power to enact mandates and restrictions in member countries. Even more concerning is that this broad power is concentrated in the hands of a single individual, the WHO’s Director-General. Instead relying on transparent processes such as public consultations with independent scientists and advisors, the Director General has the sole discretion to declare a PHEIC.

The potential implications of this centralized authority are alarming. During the many oft-predicted future pandemics, it is theoretically possible that the WHO police patrol their member-countries to enforce WHO policies, a future those of us in the Medical Freedom world reject, and whose constitutionality would have certainly been questioned in the courts. Since legal matters take years to resolve, remaining in the WHO would still have enabled a foreign body with sweeping new powers dictate our freedoms.

Trump’s decision reinforces our Constitutional guarantee to personal sovereignty and medical freedom, and thankfully, at least for the next four years, we won’t have to think about the WHO telling us what to do!

Trump Executive Orders