DONALD TRUMP is threatening to stop sending US funds to the World Health Organisation (WHO), claiming that the international body has "called it wrong" in their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The President told reporters on Tuesday that the WHO had "missed the call" on the virus and that their approach was "very China-centric", suggesting that the body had mainly focused their efforts on protecting Beijing's best interests.
The WHO has praised China for its transparency on the coronavirus, despite the fact that there has been much speculation that the country's official tally of cases and deaths from the disease have been suppressed and hidden from the public.
During his White House press briefing on Tuesday, Mr Trump initially announced that he would be putting US funds to the WHO on hold, before retracting his words later, saying he would "strongly consider" such a move.
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted: "The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China-centric. We will be giving that a good look.
"Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"
The WHO has firmly rejected Mr Trump's claims, with UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying: "It is clear that the WHO has done tremendous work on COVID-19."
There are those who have speculated that Trump's latest attack on the WHO is a scapegoating tactic used to deflect attention away from his handling of the pandemic.
The US now has the highest number of confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world.
