President Javier Milei of Argentina announced plans to withdraw his nation from the World Health Organization on Wednesday, the latest in a series of moves by Mr. Milei that mimic President Trump’s efforts to break with international norms and alliances.
“We will never forget that they were the architects of the draconian lockdowns,” Mr. Milei wrote on X, referring to the W.H.O.’s support for broad quarantines during the pandemic. He called the lockdowns “one of the most egregious crimes against humanity in history.”
“That’s why we have decided to withdraw from such a nefarious organization,” he added, “which acted as the enforcement arm of the largest social control experiment in history.”
President Trump signed an order to withdraw the United States from the W.H.O. in the first hours of his presidency, similarly criticizing the United Nations agency’s handling of the pandemic and the cost of being a member. Mr. Milei has long criticized the W.H.O. — even writing a book condemning pandemic policies in 2020 — but he only decided to pull out of the organization weeks after Mr. Trump did the same.
If the United States and Argentina follow through on their plans, they will join Liechtenstein as the only U.N. member nations that are not also members of the U.N.’s global health alliance.
That reflects Mr. Milei’s effort to align his nation with Mr. Trump’s scorched-earth approach to the international order, even if it comes at the expense of Argentina’s previous allies and partnerships.
Mr. Milei’s spokesman said Wednesday that Argentina has also been examining whether to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the main global pact to combat climate change, like the United States did last month. Mr. Milei, like President Trump, has publicly doubted the science showing that human activity is dangerously warming the planet.
Shortly after becoming president in 2023, Mr. Milei canceled Argentina’s plans to join the BRICS economic alliance led by China, saying he instead wanted to move his country closer to the United States.
Leaving the W.H.O. could end up costing Argentina, which is struggling under tens of billions of dollars of international debt.
Unlike the United States, which contributes roughly 15 percent of the organization’s $6.8 billion budget over two years, Argentina pays a much smaller membership fee, estimated at about $10 million a year by the Argentine news organization La Nación.
The benefits Argentina receives from membership far outweighs the cost, including tracking of outbreaks, disease prevention and sharing of technology, said Leandro Cahn, director of Fundación Huésped, a large public health organization in Argentina. “The problems the Argentine health system has won’t be resolved by not being part of the W.H.O.,” he said.
Mr. Milei’s office said Argentina would remain a member of the Pan-American Health Organization. Mr. Cahn said that may enable the country to still receive deep discounts on vaccines and medications that W.H.O. members receive, but it was unclear.
While Mr. Milei has tamed Argentina’s extreme inflation, the nation remains in a precarious financial situation. Mr. Milei has suggested that Argentina will need additional loans from the International Monetary Fund. The United States is the I.M.F.’s largest and most influential contributor.
Amid that backdrop, Mr. Milei has positioned himself as perhaps Mr. Trump’s most reliable ally on the global stage. He was one of two world leaders, along with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, behind Mr. Trump when he was sworn in as president last month. And Mr. Milei plans to travel to the United States this month to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference ahead of President Trump.
Mr. Milei and Mr. Trump see eye to eye on many topics, most prominently that “woke” ideology threatens Western society. Mr. Milei gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month that sharply criticized policies that seek to help or protect people based on their gender, race or sexuality.
“The great anvil that appears as a common denominator in failing countries and institutions is the woke mind virus,” he said in the speech, imitating language from the billionaire Elon Musk. “This is the great epidemic of our time.”
He cited “feminism, diversity, inclusion, equity, immigration, abortion, environmentalism, gender ideology,” as problematic consequences of “wokeness.” He added that parents who help young children transition to different genders are “pedophiles” committing abuse. His comments against gay and transgender rights prompted large protests last week across Argentina.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Milei have banned gender-neutral language and many diversity policies from government.
Mr. Milei made those moves before Mr. Trump returned as president. Mr. Musk and others have also credited Mr. Milei as an inspiration for the Trump administration’s work — led by Mr. Musk — to drastically slash the size of the U.S. government. Mr. Milei has carried out a similar effort in Argentina and is expected to soon unveil plans for a second phase that would eliminate or combine 50 state agencies.
In other ways, it appears that Mr. Milei is taking cues from Mr. Trump. Mr. Milei and his ministers have recently sharpened their rhetoric against migrants. Mr. Milei’s spokesman, Manuel Adorni, said Wednesday that the government was working on new immigration laws “and more secure borders.”
Last month, an Argentine governor announced plans to build a 200-meter-long wall along a section of Argentina’s border with Bolivia that officials said is frequently crossed illegally. Mr. Milei posted the news on X, noting, “Excellent.”
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