The World Health Organization Is Trump’s Latest Target in His COVID-19 Blame Game
from The Internationalist and International Institutions and Global Governance Program

The World Health Organization Is Trump’s Latest Target in His COVID-19 Blame Game

The White House-orchestrated campaign to discredit the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic has been unfair and disingenuous.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks during the coronavirus response daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 10, 2020.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks during the coronavirus response daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 10, 2020. Yuri Gripas/Reuters

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I examine U.S. President Donald J. Trump's blame of the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic and contrast the responses of the two to the crisis. 

For those still curious about the meaning of gaslighting, look no further than President Donald Trump’s verbal assault on the World Health Organization last week. In a flagrant attempt to divert attention from his own poor performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump excoriated the WHO for alleged delays and dysfunction in its global response. Beyond its immediate details, the episode offered a textbook example of how conservative U.S. politicians curry favor with their sovereignty-minded constituencies by treating multilateral organizations as pinatas and scapegoats during crises.

More on:

Public Health Threats and Pandemics

COVID-19

World Health Organization (WHO)

Donald Trump

Global Governance

Read the full World Politics Review article here.

More on:

Public Health Threats and Pandemics

COVID-19

World Health Organization (WHO)

Donald Trump

Global Governance

Creative Commons
Creative Commons: Some rights reserved.
Close
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.
View License Detail