THE acting secretary of the U.S. Navy resigned Tuesday for bungling the firing of a captain on a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier who had sent a memo warning of an outbreak on the ship.

Thomas Modly, a Naval Academy graduate and former helicopter pilot, resigned on the same day that three states — New York, New Jersey and Louisiana — reported their highest daily death tolls from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to put a hold on U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

At the outset of a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on Tuesday night, Trump reiterated what he said in the tweet:

“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it, and we’re going to see.’’

But minutes later, he walked back his threat, telling reporters that he was “looking into it” and that a global pandemic was “maybe not” the best time to freeze funding for the international organization.

“The WHO is underfunded as it is. Denying them funding based on their correct criticism of U.S. failures to respond adequately to the coronavirus pandemic is deeply damaging to global public health,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, tweeted Tuesday.

Modly submitted his resignation letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper after meeting with him, a defense official with knowledge of the meeting said.

“He resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and Sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward,” Esper said in a statement.

Modly resigned after flying nearly 8,000 miles (12,875 km) to Guam on Sunday where he berated thousands of sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in a profanity-laced speech in which he called the ship’s fired captain “stupid.’’

He apologized Monday night: “Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid,” he said in a statement. “I think, and always believed him to be the opposite. We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care.’’

But it wasn’t enough to stop a swift backlash in Congress, where there were calls for his resignation and an investigation.

Trump said Tuesday night at a news briefing that “I would not have asked’’ Modly to resign.

“I didn’t speak to him, but he did that I think just to end that problem. And I think in really many ways that was a very unselfish thing for him to do,” Trump said.

Confirmed infections in the U.S. were more than double that of any other nation, which have surpassed 400,000, according to data Tuesday from Johns Hopkins University. Deaths from the respiratory disease caused by the virus rose to more than 12,000 among Americans, while 20,191 have recovered. (China Daily)