Trump 'terminates' U.S. relationship with WHO, blames China for 'covering up' coronavirus spread

President Trump gave a Friday press conference that didn't even touch that day's biggest topic.

On Friday, Trump announced that he was withdrawing U.S. support from the World Health Organization, reshuffling America's $450 million annual contribution to the WHO to other health groups. Trump went on to criticize China for allegedly covering up the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic, and claimed the WHO had allowed that cover-up to happen.

While Trump had previously praised China for its "transparency" during the COVID-19 crisis, on Friday he suggested a unfounded conspiracy in which the coronavirus "didn't go to Beijing." Trump then noted that China gives $40 million to the WHO compared to the U.S.'s $450 million, but claimed without proof that the organization is controlled by China. The move leaves the WHO without its largest financial backer, The Associated Press reports.

Trump left the conference without taking any questions from the press, which would've presumably been about the ongoing protests in Minneapolis over George Floyd's death in police custody. Trump had tweeted "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," a phrase that some critics linked to a racist Miami police chief who invoked it when cracking down on black neighborhoods in the 1960s.