"On the night of his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order that froze almost all international assistance. What followed was the termination of billions of dollars in aid programs and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. Now some foreign aid money is flowing again, but it's much less than before, and the future of U.S. foreign assistance now looks very different."
"Well, it became clear quickly that the Trump administration viewed foreign aid as a big, fat problem - that it was not aligned with the national interest, it cost too much money, even though, you know, foreign aid was about 1% of the overall federal budget. So they wanted to really take the whole thing apart and recreate it in a way that fits the America-First foreign policy."
"USAID, as the agency that led foreign aid, was seen by Trump Republicans as a bastion of the left. And some of its programs that supported gender equity or LGBTQ rights or climate solutions or even reproductive health, they were seen as part of this woke agenda that taxpayers should not be funding. And the president even accused the agency of waste, fraud and abuse, even though the White House hasn't provided evidence of that so far."
The Trump administration issued an executive order freezing nearly all international assistance, leading to termination of billions in aid and the dismantling of USAID. Some funding has resumed, but at much lower levels and with a reoriented approach. The administration framed foreign aid as misaligned with national interest and overly costly despite being about 1% of the federal budget. Officials sought to remake assistance to fit America-First priorities and to eliminate programs seen as promoting gender equity, LGBTQ rights, climate solutions, or reproductive health. The president also accused USAID of waste without providing documented evidence.
Read at www.npr.org
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