The new President of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, has signed an executive order suspending all US foreign aid programs for 90 days until a review determines whether the assistance is consistent with his policy goals.
It is not yet known what the consequences will be, as the US Congress has already allocated funds for many programs and is obligated to disburse them, if they have not already been disbursed.
The order, among many that Trump signed on his first day back in office, states that “international aid programs and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases are contrary to American values”, and “serve to destabilize world peace”.
Trump stated that “no further international aid from the United States will be disbursed unless it is fully consistent with the President’s foreign policy”.
New Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that “every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified by answering three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? and Does it make America more prosperous?”
The order signed by Trump leaves Rubio or someone he chooses to make decisions on specific foreign aid projects, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the main agencies that oversee that aid.
Trump has long criticized U.S. foreign aid, despite it making up only about 1 percent of the federal budget, with the only exception being billions of dollars in weapons given to Ukraine.
Some of the largest recipients of U.S. aid include Israel ($3.3 billion annually), Egypt ($1.5 billion annually), and Jordan ($1.7 billion annually). There are unlikely to be dramatic cuts, as these amounts are included in funding packages that last for decades, in some cases with contractual obligations.
Funding for UN agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights, and refugee agencies, has been a traditional target of Republican administrations like Trump’s, which have slashed their funding.
