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Did Fox Hosts Talk Trump Into Defunding the WHO?

After two of Donald Trump’s favorite Fox hosts blasted the White House’s consideration of restoring partial funding for the World Health Organization, the president has reportedly flipped back to his initial position of axing all U.S. contributions to the U.N. agency. On Friday, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson showcased a leaked draft letter in which Trump wrote that despite the WHO’s recent “shortcomings, I believe that the WHO still has tremendous potential, and want to see the WHO live up to this potential, particularly now during this global crisis,” before adding one funding stipulation: “If China increases its funding to the WHO, we will consider matching those increases.”

Later, Carlson said Dr. Tedros Adhanom, WHO’s director general, disgraced himself and accused the agency of spreading “the baldest kind of Chinese propaganda…That killed people” in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. Carlson, who has previously referred to the WHO as a “lapdog” for China’s communist regime, then linked the White House’s Dr. Anthony Fauci to the president’s near change of heart, saying Fauci is a “fervent fan” of Tedros and would be “thrilled” if Trump reversed course on his WHO reservations. Apparently aware that Trump is a fan and frequent viewer of Carlson’s program, Fox News medical contributor Marc Siegel proceeded to directly urge Trump “not [to] sign anything that restores funding to the World Health Organization” until the agency is massively overhauled. Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, another of the president’s favorite hosts, also protested the president’s WHO aid reassessment, tweeting the Tucker Carlson Tonight segment at Trump and condemning his advisers who are pushing for the funding restart, as they are “surely not [working] for our historic President or this great nation.”

The following morning, Trump responded to Dobbs and assured him that these additional but limited WHO contributions are not a done deal. “Lou, this is just one of numerous concepts being considered under which we would pay 10% of what we have been paying over many years, matching much lower China payments,” he tweeted Saturday. “Have not made final decision. All funds are frozen.” During his weekend trip to Camp David, some of Trump’s closest congressional allies used closed-door meetings to advise him against giving “a dime to WHO,” Axios reported Sunday. “That’s where the president’s head is at as well. So it was more reaffirming his position,” one source familiar with the talks told the outlet.

The president doubled down on his grudge against the WHO on Monday, as he declined an invitation to speak at a World Health Assembly video conference today that featured other world leaders. The WHO’s plan was to unite Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump, who were both invited to speak during the virtual summit’s welcoming session. “The WHO wanted to bring these two leaders together, the biggest economies in the world, at a time when they are being cold to each other, and try to create some sense of solidarity,” a source told Axios. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Xi—who pledged $2 billion in coronavirus aid for WHO’s global efforts—all addressed the assembly, but Trump only dispatched Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to deliver a message denouncing the agency. “We saw that WHO failed at its core mission of information-sharing and transparency when member states do not act in good faith. This cannot ever happen again…. WHO must change and it must become far more transparent and far more accountable,” said Azar after saying the WHO’s “failure” to obtain the information the international community needed about the virus early this year “cost many lives.”

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