Trump suspends US foreign assistance for 90 days pending reviews
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[January 21, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on
Monday temporarily suspending all U.S. foreign assistance programs for
90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his
policy goals.
It was not immediately clear how much assistance would initially be
affected by the order as funding for many programs has already been
appropriated by Congress and is obligated to be spent, if not already
spent.
The order, among many Trump signed on his first day back in office, said
the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American
interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve
to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that
are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and
among countries.”
Consequently, Trump declared that “no further United States foreign
assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with
the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing last week that
“every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we
pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions:
“Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make
America more prosperous?” he said.
The order signed by Trump leaves it up to Rubio or his designee to make
such determinations, 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 foreign assistance.
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President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of
the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump has long railed against foreign aid despite the fact that such
assistance typically amounts to roughly 1% of the federal budget,
except under unusual circumstances such as the billions in weaponry
provided to Ukraine. Trump has been critical of the amount shipped
to Ukraine to help bolster its defenses against Russia's invasion.
The last official accounting of foreign aid in the Biden
administration dates from mid-December and budget year 2023. It
shows that $68 billion had been obligated for programs abroad that
range from disaster relief to health and pro-democracy initiatives
in 204 countries and regions.
Some of the biggest recipients of U.S. assistance, Israel ($3.3
billion per year), Egypt ($1.5 billion per year) and Jordan ($1.7
billion per year) are unlikely to see dramatic reductions, as those
amounts are included in long-term packages that date back decades
and are in some cases governed by treaty obligations.
Funding for U.N. agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights and
refugee agencies, have been traditional targets for Republican
administrations to slash or otherwise cut. The first Trump
administration moved to reduce foreign aid spending, suspending
payments to various UN agencies, including the U.N. Population Fund,
and funding to the Palestinian Authority.
However, the U.S. previously under Trump had already pulled out of
the U.N. Human Rights Council, with its financial obligations, and
has been barred from funding the the U.N. agency for Palestinian
refugees, or UNRWA, by a bill signed by former President Joe Biden
last March.
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