Trump hollows out USAID. Who will miss it most?
A woman stands by USAID-provided sacks of wheat in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, May 8, 2021.
Ben Curtis/AP/File
Johannesburg
When Donald Trump took office as president Jan. 20, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was one of the world鈥檚 largest aid organizations, with a staff of more than 10,000 people and an annual budget of around $40 billion.
As of this weekend, even its continued existence is uncertain. On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration鈥檚 plan to place nearly the entire USAID staff on administrative leave and recall overseas employees to the United States. But the order is temporary, and the president and his allies have vowed to continue their work to dismantle the agency, which they argue is bloated, inefficient, and out of step with American values.
The administration is 鈥渇eeding USAID into the wood chipper,鈥� boasted Trump adviser Elon Musk in on his social platform, X.
Why We Wrote This
The Trump administration is moving to close down USAID, one of biggest foreign aid organizations in the world. Where does American aid go, how much does it cost, and who benefits from it?
USAID鈥檚 rapid evisceration began with an executive order Mr. Trump signed on his first day in office, pausing all American foreign aid for 90 days. Then Mr. Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency 鈥� which despite its name, is not an actual federal department 鈥� moved in.
Meanwhile, around the world, U.S.-funded aid projects ground to halt. A migrant shelter in Mexico , social worker, and child psychologist. A community organization in Zimbabwe to keep girls in school and out of child marriages. A helpline for veterans and their families in Ukraine . An independent investigative media outlet in Bosnia . Lifesaving medicines were , with no way of transporting them to their destinations across the war-stricken country.
A few USAID-funded projects have now received an 鈥渆mergency humanitarian waiver鈥� to continue operations, though it remains unclear to many whether they qualify. At the same time, a legal challenge to determine if the sudden dismissal of most of the USAID workforce was legal is ongoing.
For his part, Mr. Trump has promised that the upheaval at USAID to U.S. foreign assistance.
Rather, he says he wants to reform the agency. In that, he may find popular support. Polls have shown believe the country spends too much on foreign aid (although they also believe it of the U.S. budget, when in fact it accounts for less than 1%).
Still, many argue American aid isn鈥檛 just a bleeding-heart, do-gooder project of 鈥渞adical left lunatics,鈥� as Mr. Trump recently claimed, but a vital element in maintaining support for the U.S. around the world.
鈥淲hat I want to just express to the American people is that USAID and the work that they鈥檙e doing, it鈥檚 not charity,鈥� said Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey in an this week. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 American altruism. This is something that is so vital to our national security.鈥�