USAID’s Future Uncertain; Employees To Return to U.S.
Last Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he is now serving as the acting administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), signalling a de facto takeover of the agency by the State Department. In a related development, Elon Musk revealed on X that he agreed with President Donald Trump that US- AID should be shut down. These comments come amid a series of significant changes implemented by the Trump administration to redefine the U.S.’s position in delivering foreign assistance.
On his first day back at the Oval Office, Trump signed an executive order implementing a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance. Trump and his allies have prioritized slashing government funding and have chosen to focus on USAID. Trump’s stance is not one of surprise. His relationship with USAID during his first administration was marked by his “America First” policy.
This time, according to the AP, the Trump administration is putting all staff at USAID on administrative leave as of 11:59 p.m. on Friday. There is some public support for potentially slashing budgets on foreign aid agencies. In a March 2023 Associated Press-National Opinion Resource Center poll, about six in 10 U.S. adults said the U.S. government was spending “too much” overall on foreign assistance. In the same poll, approximately six in 10 U.S adults said the government was spending “too little” on domestic issues including education, health care, infrastructure, Social Security and Medicare.
However, polling shows that U.S. adults tend to overestimate the share of the federal budget spent on foreign aid. A study from the Brookings Institute reveals that Americans believe foreign aid is in the 25 percent range of the federal budget when it makes up less than 1 percent. As the White House continues to push for reform, the future of USAID remains uncertain. The agency, a source of soft power for the U.S. abroad, may soon face significant changes with far-reaching consequences for how the U.S. engages with the world.