Month: November 2025

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Gutting world health in favor of a gilded ballroom only Trump wanted

Until recently, the United States was the biggest funder to the World Health Organization. Ten months after Trump announced the U.S. was withdrawing its membership, WHO just announced it must let go of 2,371 workers, about one-quarter of its workforce.

Trump estimates a cost of $300 million for the ballroom that will replace his unauthorized demolition of the White House’s East Wing.

That is more than the $218 million the United States paid in the two years of 2022 and 2023 as its assessed member contribution to WHO. In addition, the U.S. voluntarily gave $47 million to WHO’s emergency fund. Those two figures add up to $265 million. Total voluntary contributions from the U.S. in those two years amounted to $1.02 billion.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation chipped in another $826 million.

China’s voluntary contribution in those years was $41 million.

We now have sunk below even that paltry sum.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/19/world-health-organisation-to-cut-jobs-due-to-us-withdrawing-funding

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-who-funds-the-world-health-organization/

https://www.statista.com/chart/33800/top-contributors-to-the-world-health-organization/

The U.S. Government and the World Health Organization
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To America’s eight richest billionaires: Buy yourselves some goodwill.

The eight richest people in the country could fund SNAP, which provides food benefits to 42 million low-income families and individuals, for almost two months by donating 1 percent of their net worth. This would amount to $15.79 billion.

Elon Musk, net worth $342 billion; 1 percent: $3.42 billion
Mark Zuckerberg, net worth $216 billion; 1 percent: $2.16 billion
Jeff Bezos, net worth $215 billion; 1 percent: $2.15 billion
Larry Ellison, net worth $192 billion; 1 percent: $1.92 billion
Bernard Arnault and family, net worth $178 billion; 1 percent: $1.78 billion
Warren Buffet, net worth $154 billion; 1 percent: $1.54 billion
Larry Page, net worth $144 billion; 1 percent: $1.44 billion
Sergey Brin, net worth $138 billion; 1 percent: $1.38 billion

The average monthly SNAP benefit is $187 a month per person. Households can’t have more than $3,000 to $4,500 in available cash (a bank account) and net income that is at or below the poverty line to qualify. The 2025 poverty line varies from $15,650 for a single person to $67,710 for a family of eight in Alaska, the state where benefits are highest. Trump is cutting SNAP benefits in half.

Jimmy Chen of Brooklyn, N.Y. started a company called Propel that provides a free app to 5 million SNAP recipients, who use it to manage their benefits. He has partnered with the nonprofit GiveDirectly to raise money and funnel it to people on SNAP.

For what would be a pittance to them, America’s eight richest billionaires have an opportunity to help millions of the country’s poorest, many of them children and seniors. We don’t need a gilded ballroom at the White House. We need those who have benefited the most from our economy to step up.

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

https://www.newsweek.com/snap-benefits-november-2025-payments-update-shutdown-trump-10990656

https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits

https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/04/nx-s1-5587728/snap-shutdown-propel-tech-startup-cash-donations