Donald Trump: 'China Has Total Control Over WHO'

Donald Trump's criticism of the WHO started last month when he threatened to permanently withdraw US funding if the body did not "commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days".

"It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world," Trump wrote in a letter to the WHO director-general on 18 May.

"The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China."

In today's White House speech, Trump said "China has total control over the World Health Organization", despite paying the organization a fraction of what the US does.

China has accused the US of being responsible for the spread of the virus on its own soil, attributing the outbreak to American "politicians who lie".