Trump Officials Propose $2B Replacement for WHO

New U.S. system would cost 3 times what was paid to WHO, experts say

Published on Feb. 25, 2026

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After withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Trump administration is proposing to spend $2 billion a year to build a new global disease surveillance and outbreak response system to replace the functions the U.S. previously accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost. Public health experts say the effort would be costly and unlikely to match the WHO's reach.

Why it matters

The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO has stunned global health experts, as the U.S. was the most influential member and largest financial contributor to the organization. Experts say exiting the WHO makes the U.S. less prepared to respond to health emergencies like pandemics, and that global cooperation is key to controlling and preventing infectious diseases.

The details

The Department of Health and Human Services is leading the efforts to construct a U.S.-led rival to the WHO, requesting $2 billion in funding from the Office of Management and Budget. Before withdrawing, the U.S. provided roughly $680 million a year in assessed dues and voluntary contributions to the WHO, about 15-18% of the organization's $3.7 billion annual budget. The proposed U.S. alternative would rebuild systems like labs, data-sharing networks and rapid-response capabilities that the U.S. abandoned when it left the WHO.

  • The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO became official last month.
  • The HHS has requested the $2 billion in funding from OMB in recent weeks.

The players

World Health Organization (WHO)

The preeminent global health alliance that the U.S. has historically been the most influential member of and largest financial contributor to.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

The federal agency leading the efforts to construct a U.S.-led rival to the WHO and requesting $2 billion in funding.

Tom Inglesby

Director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who served as a senior COVID-19 adviser during the Biden administration.

Atul Gawande

Harvard Medical School professor who served as USAID's assistant administrator for global health from 2022 to 2025.

Donald Trump

The former U.S. president who announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the WHO at the start of his second term.

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What they’re saying

“Spending two to three times the cost to create what we already had access to makes absolutely no sense in terms of fiscal stewardship. We're not going to get the same quality or breadth of information we would have by being in the WHO, or have anywhere the influence we had.”

— Tom Inglesby, Director, Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (adn.com)

“It's after the decimation of foreign aid for health, including the dismantling of USAID, and has already cost upward of three-quarters of a million lives. This is not reversing the damage. It is spending more than we spent on WHO to create an institution that's unlikely to survive and will certainly accomplish only a fraction of what we did by working together with the entire world.”

— Atul Gawande, Harvard Medical School Professor, Former USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health (adn.com)

What’s next

The Department of Health and Human Services is working with the White House in an interagency process to determine the path forward for global health and foreign assistance that protects Americans.

The takeaway

The Trump administration's proposal to replace the WHO with a more expensive U.S.-led system raises concerns about the loss of global cooperation and influence, as well as the potential for the new system to be less effective and comprehensive than the WHO's existing infrastructure and reach.