President Trump has in recent months lambasted China over the coronavirus pandemic, but he praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s handling of the deadly disease for months at the beginning of the outbreak.
As cases of Covid-19 first began to appear in the United States, Trump spoke highly of Xi’s handling of the outbreak in China and repeatedly said the US was in close coordination with Beijing on the matter.
“I think they've handled it professionally and I think they're extremely capable and I think President Xi is extremely capable and I hope that it's going to be resolved,” he said on Feb. 13.
Hundreds of US deaths later, Trump’s attitude toward Beijing began to change.
“I’m a little upset with China, I’ll be honest with you, because as much as I like President Xi and as much as I respect the country and admire the country — I have great admiration for the country, what they’ve done in a short period of time. … But they should have told us about this,” he said on March 22.
Yet even as cases skyrocketed in the US and Trump’s ire with China grew, he directed his actions not at Beijing but at the World Health Organization.
Trump said he was halting funding to the organization in mid-April and announced his intention to withdraw from the WHO in May after he said it "failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms."
Trump had denounced the US' contribution to the WHO — $400-500 million — in comparison to China's and consistently accused the organization of aiding China in allegedly covering up the origins of the virus and allowing its spread. In July, he officially initiated the US withdrawal from the WHO, which will be complete next July.
Trump said last week that he could not say when he had last spoken to his Chinese counterpart.
“I have not spoken to him in a while because I don’t want to speak to him,” he said.