WHO a 'puppet of China', says US President Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump once again on Monday attacked the WHO, saying the UN health body was a ‘puppet’ of China.

Trump claimed that more people would have died from coronavirus in the country had he not imposed a ban on travel from China, which was ‘opposed’ by the health agency.

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“They (WHO) are a puppet of China. They're China-centric, to put it nicer. But they're a puppet of China,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“I think they have done a very sad job. The United States pays them USD 450 million a year. China pays them USD 38 million a year,” Trump said in response to a question.

Trump said the World Health Organization was against the imposition of a ban on travel from China in late January.

“The World Health Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They said you don't need it, it's too much, it's too severe, and they turned out to be wrong,” he said.

Trump said Democratic Party’s presidential nominee and former vice-president Joe Biden was too against the ban.

“Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He said I was xenophobic. I was xenophobic because I said you can't come in if you come from China. You can't come into our country, very early. And Biden said I was xenophobic,” he said.

“If I didn't do that ban, you would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important ban. People don't like talking about the ban, but it was very important,” the US president said, claiming that it was only he who wanted it.

“We did it and saved thousands of lives, hundreds of thousands of lives probably,” he said.