Trump’s “Withdrawal” From WHO: Just Security

Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, another treaty arrangement, in the midst of a pandemic. The Trump administration may be trying to deflect attention from a disastrous pandemic response, yet Harold Koh of Yale Law School focuses on legal issues: Trump, lacking legal authority, did not actually withdraw the US from WHO, and Congress could prevent such withdrawal. A 1948 congressional joint resolution specified the United States could withdraw with two conditions: Providing a year's notice and fulfilling financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The US has an election in November, and Trump may not be president next year. Even if the US reelects Trump, the US must pay the balance of its 2020 assessed contribution, $60 million. Koh argues that the president lacks constitutional power to withdraw the country from such international agreements and opponents could launch a court challenge. Koh reviews legal precedent and concludes: “It would be grievous error, in the waning days of his first and perhaps only term, for an impeached, mercurial president (or his lawyers) to assume that our Constitution confides in Trump alone the power to disengage the United States from the WHO, or other crucial international organizations that make up the post-World War II legal order.” – YaleGlobal