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Tag: Organization

Argentina’s Milei follows Trump and ditches World Health Organization, others to follow?

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Argentine President Javier Milei, a close ally of President Donald Trump, on Wednesday announced his intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO), echoing steps taken by the U.S.’s Commander-in-Chief last month.

A spokesman for Milei announced the order and said the withdrawal from the world’s top health and safety agency was due to “profound differences” with the United Nations organization due to its advice during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the largest shutdowns “in the history of mankind.”

Milei’s decision came just 2 weeks after Trump, for the second time, issued an executive order to pull the U.S. out of WHO, again citing its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei said at a Bloomberg event on January 22, 2025, that “The world should celebrate the arrival of President Trump.” (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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WHO, which issued a statement immediately following Trump’s announcement noting that it “regrets” his decision to end U.S. involvement in the organization, has yet to comment on Milei’s move to end Argentina’s participation in the organization.

While the U.S. withdrawal could prove detrimental to the organization as it is the WHO’s single biggest contributor and is reported to have provided nearly 15% of the agency’s total two-year budget, donating $958 million towards the $6.5 billion budget ending in 2025, Argentina’s withdrawal is far less significant, the Associated Press reported.

According to local news outlet, the Buenos Aires Times, Argentina contributed between $8-$9 million a year to the WHO during 2022-2023 and 2024-2025, accounting for roughly a quarter of a percent of the budget annually.

“We Argentines are not going to allow an international organization to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” a spokesman for Milei’s office said during a Wednesday press conference, according to multiple reports.

Customers shop for produce at a vendor stall in a market in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Despite the spokesman’s comments, the WHO holds no legal authority over a nation’s internal decisions, like issuing quarantine orders amid a pandemic, which both the first Trump administration and Milei’s predecessor issued.

But Argentina might not be the only country considering leaving the international health organization, as Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, last month also proposed a bill that would follow Trump’s executive order.

Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, also a top ally of Trump and who attended his inauguration alongside Milei, has not publicly commented on the recent internal push to leave WHO.

Milei is expected to face opposition at home as his decision to withdrawal from WHO would require congressional approval – an argument that some have made in opposition to Trump’s unilateral move to sever ties with the international health organization.

Argentina President Javier Milei, left, speaks with Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni before walking the Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Trump’s first attempt to withdraw the U.S. from WHO in 2020 was unsuccessful as President Biden took up the top job six months after he issued the order, and according to the charter signed by the U.S. in 1948, Washington must give the international body one year’s notice before leaving.

As the U.S. entered the U.N. organization by an act of Congress, it is believed that Trump would need Congress to agree to the withdrawal, which means he could face a future lawsuit over his attempts to remove the U.S. unilaterally from the WHO.

The WHO did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions.

February 6, 2025
Raiders owner Mark Davis says Jon Gruden’s resignation set organization back: ‘His head was chopped off’

Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis hired Jon Gruden as head coach in 2018, locking him with a massive 10-year contract with the confidence that bringing Gruden back would bring stability and success to the organization.

Instead, Gruden would be forced to resign years later over an email scandal – a sequence of events that Davis believes largely set the organization back.

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Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, left, talks to team owner Mark Davis before the Raiders play the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 21, 2021. (Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)

Speaking to the media on Monday, Davis praised the additions of new head coach Pete Carroll and new general manager John Spytek. However, he also praised the team’s new “infrastructure,” which includes Tom Brady as a minority owner.

“Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody that was on the football side that I had been lacking having here at the organization,” Davis said.

“Back in 2018 with Jon Gruden, he was someone that I brought in and really expected to be that person on the football side that would bring stability to the organization. He had a 10-year contract and all that – and his head was chopped off.”

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, left, speaks with owner Mark Davis before the game against the Denver Broncos at Oakland Coliseum on Dec. 24, 2018. (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

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Gruden, who is currently suing the NFL, resigned after leaked emails sent by the former head coach included racist, misogynistic and homophobic remarks directed at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, among others.

Davis said that Gruden’s resignation in 2021 triggered a series of turnovers in the organization.

“We were put in a really bad position as an organization. And we tried to get it right with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler – that didn’t work out. Antonio Pierce was given the interim job and I believe the job that he did as an interim coach warranted him earning the job as head coach of the Raiders… We just felt that it was time for a change.”

Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll speaks at a press conference at Intermountain Health Performance Center on Jan. 27, 2025. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

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Davis said Monday that he believes Brady fills the void left behind by Gruden and that the new personnel brought in will have the lasting effect he had hoped for in 2018.

“We want to build something here. That’s been the process and mindset all along. Like I said, that got offset or kind of blown up when Jon Gruden was sent away. So, we’ve been trying to get it right since then. We’ll see, but I’ve got patience to get it right.”

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Carroll takes over as the team’s 14th head coach since Gruden was traded to Tampa Bay in 2002. He is the fifth coach, including those in an interim role, since the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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January 29, 2025
Trump open to considering re-entry into World Health Organization

President Donald Trump said he was open to potentially rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO), just days after he signed a Day One executive order that withdrew the U.S. from the international group.

During a rally at Circa Resort & Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, the president told those in attendance that it was unfair a country like China, with a population much greater than the U.S., was only paying a fraction of what the U.S. was paying annually to the WHO.

“We paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year despite a much larger population. Think of that. China’s paying $39 million to have 1.4 billion people, we pay $500 million we have – no one knows what the hell we have, does anyone know? We have so many people pouring in we have no idea,” Trump told rally goers on Saturday.

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“They offered me at $39 million, they said ‘We’ll let you back in for $39 million,’ they’re going to reduce it from [$500 million] to [$39 million], and I turned them down, because it became so popular I didn’t know if it would be well received even at [$39 million], but maybe we would consider doing it again, I don’t know, they have to clean it up a bit.”

WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting in Beijing in 2020. (Naohiko Hatta/Pool Photo via AP, File)

An analysis of national contributions to the WHO from NPR found that the U.S. pays for roughly 10% of the WHO’s budget, while China pays about 3%.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the WHO in an executive order issued hours after he was sworn into office last week. The president cited reasons such as WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms,” and “unfairly onerous payments” forced on the U.S. During Trump’s first term, in July 2020, he took steps to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO but his successor, former President Joe Biden, eventually reinstated the nation’s participation in the global health initiative.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the WHO in an executive order issued hours after he was sworn into office. (Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)

The president’s complaints about the U.S. paying too much to the WHO mirror his complaints about U.S. participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Trump said he was asking all NATO nations to contribute 5% of their gross domestic products to NATO defense spending.

NATO set a threshold of 2% that countries must pay in 2014, but, according to Trump, “most nations didn’t pay” until he began pushing for other countries to contribute more. Still, according to NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte, countries like Spain, Italy and Canada have yet to even meet that 2% contribution.

Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference at NATO headquarters on Dec. 4, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

Following Trump’s demands that NATO members spend 5% of their gross domestic product, he questioned whether the U.S. should be spending anything on NATO at all, telling reporters from the Oval Office that the U.S. was protecting NATO members, but those same members are “not protecting us.”

“I’m not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them,” Trump said from the Oval Office.

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The White House declined to comment for purposes of this story.

January 27, 2025