On his very first day in office, January 20th, 2025, Trump implemented a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance, with Peter Marocco drafting a tougher-than-expected interpretation of that order in a move to shut down thousands of programs around the world.
Euronews.com
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was created by former United States President John F. Kennedy on November 3, 1961, has helped several underdeveloped as well as developing nations across the globe since its inception. The organisation was created to unite development into a single agency responsible for administering aid to foreign countries to promote social and economic development. Over the years, the workforce of USAID has continued to serve the ‘core Americal values’ which are rooted in the belief in doing the right thing by providing aid to countries.
There is no escaping our obligations: our moral obligations as a wise leader and a good neighbor in the interdependent community of free nations - our economic obligations as the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people, as a nation no longer dependent upon the loans from abroad that once helped us develop our economy - and our political obligations as the single largest counter to the adversaries of freedom.
Since its inception, USAID has set up aid across several countries, remarkably in the Maldives to improve public financial management and strengthen democratic governance as well as protect the marine environment, in Mali to work with young people in Mali to provide education, technical training, and entrepreneurship training, aid in Zambia to improve education data and research quality to help inform decision making, Tanzania to address gaps in HIV, TB, and family planning services, and across the globe to strengthen systems that prevent, detect, and respond to health threats. In addition to this, USAID also works to improve child survival and health in countries affected by HIV/AIDS.
For the past 64 years, USAID has done remarkable work across the globe, however, the aid agency does not come without its critics who believe that the USAID program is wasteful and the aid is set up to promote a liberal agenda. It appears that the current administration in the U.S. led by President Donald J. Trump is also part of the critics who do not believe in the work that is done by the USAID across the globe. On his very first day in office, January 20th, 2025, Trump implemented a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance, with Peter Marocco drafting a tougher-than-expected interpretation of that order in a move to shut down thousands of programs around the world.
With this, thousands of contractors were laid off and dozens of senior officials were put on leave as billions of dollars that were allocated towards humanitarian assistance to other countries were frozen. In addition to this, USAID’s website as well as its website on the X platform have been taken down.
The efforts to bar USAID from providing humanitarian aid across the globe are also supported by Elon Musk, a businessman known to own X as well as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Along with the Government, DOGE started an effort to fire Government workers and cut spending as Musk alleges USAID funding has been used to launch deadly programs and called it a ‘criminal organisation.’ Although USAID assistance provided across the globe amounts to less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget, statistics show that about 6 out of 10 U.S. adults believe that the Government spending on overall foreign aid is ‘too much’.
