Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks to the media after the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola in Congo, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The World Health Organization says it is “deeply concerned” by the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo but the situation does not yet warrant being declared a global emergency. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

As we reported earlier, at his Tuesday evening White House briefing President Trump said he was going to “put a very powerful hold” on US funding to the World Health Organization, telling reporters:

The WHO, that’s the World Health Organization, receives vast amounts of money from the United States, and we pay for a majority – the biggest portion of their money, and they actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time I did it. And they were wrong. They’ve been wrong about a lot of things. And they had a lot of information early and they didn’t want to – they seem to be very China-centric….$58 million is a small portion of what they’ve gotten over the years. Sometimes, they get much more than that. Sometimes, it’s for programs that they’re doing and it’s much bigger numbers and if the programs are good, that’s great as far as we’re concerned, but we want to look into it.

The World Health Organization…They called it wrong. They missed the call. They could have called it months earlier. They would have known. And they should have known. They probably did know. So, we’ll be looking into that very carefully. And we’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see. It’s a great thing if it works, but when they call every shot wrong, that’s no good.

https://twitter.com/alx/status/1247647237624279047

Shortly after Trump made those remarks, according to Guy Benson and Philip Wegman, he appeared to be walking it back. He said, “No, maybe not. I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but we’re going to look at it.”

POTUS hedging now, saying they’re *looking at* stopping WHO funding. He’s right to pressure them hard & to point out how “China-centric” their organizational worldview seems to be — which is actually rather diplomatic. https://t.co/TrHWsgeWc7

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 7, 2020

Asked if it's a good idea to freeze funding for the WHO during a pandemic, Trump walks this back less than 15 minutes later: "No, maybe not. I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but we're going to look at it." https://t.co/IFaXRwItv8

— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) April 7, 2020

Many of us hope he goes through with it. It’s become clear to the world that the WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pocket. We also know why. The economy of Tedros’ home country of Ethiopia is dependent on China.

Fox News‘ Barnini Chakraborty explains that this has been true for over a decade:

Beijing has shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars for mega-projects including a new $160 million national sports stadium in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s largest city and capital.

“China is building the city from the ground up,” Welibuw Buzenehe, a local food merchant in the area, told Politico. “Without China, not much would happen around here.”

China has also become Ethiopia’s largest trading partner. The Export-Import Bank of China put up $2.9 billion of the $3.4 billion railway project connecting a landlocked Ethiopia to the port-heavy country of Djibouti. China’s money was also instrumental in building Ethiopia’s first six-lane highway. Beijing can — and has — taken credit for helping reshape Addis Ababa’s entire skyline with high-rises and sky scrapers.

But lately, China hasn’t been happy with its investments in Ethiopia after projects like the railway line failed to generate the kind of cash developers had hoped. If China pulls out of Ethiopia, the African country’s economy could crumble — something Tedros is desperate to avoid.

Not only did Tedros help China cover-up the extent of the crisis in their country, he has praised their handling of it. In their February report on the mission to China, the organization states, “In the face of a previously unknown virus, China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history.”

Additionally:

1. Tedros ignored early warnings from Taiwanese doctors.

2. He uncritically repeated information he’d been told by CCP leaders.

3. On January 14, the WHO announced that “Chinese authorities have seen no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.”

4. Tedros criticized President Trump for placing a travel ban on flights from China on January 31st.

5. After being pressured, the WHO announced the coronavirus was a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. But it wasn’t until March 11 that the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic.

Tedros and his organization failed to do their job which was to alert the world to the seriousness of the situation, choosing instead to aid and abet China.

In the last few days, calls for Tedros’ resignation have grown louder. Not only should he resign, he must be held accountable. People are dying and economies have crashed. His poor judgment has caused incalculable damage.