His chairman and billionaire adviser have launched a stubborn attack on the USAID international development service. When he began his second term, Trump ordered all the US output of the US – with some exceptions – and Musk threatened to completely close the independent government agency, arguing that he was not in line with US interests.
Last Tuesday, the government announced that it will be on holiday all the staff of the service worldwide, recalling thousands of staff from overseas back to the US. Despite Musk’s said “definitive closure”, the ultimate goal seems to be for USAID to be subject to the Foreign Ministry – and, according to US media, out of 10,000 employees will remain less than 300.
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What is usaid and what is it doing?
The United States Service for International Development (USAID) was established in the early 1960s to manage humanitarian aid programs on behalf of the US government. The US is the world’s largest external assistance provider in the world, spending a total of about $ 70 billion in 2022 (the latest year for which data is available). Most of this money is managed by USAID, which operates mainly by disbursing NGOs, international organizations and foreign governments.
The range of activities it undertakes is huge. For example, USAID not only provides food in countries where people starve, but also uses data analysis to try to predict where food deficiencies will occur. At the same time, much of its budget is spent on health programs, such as vaccinations against polio.
What is the purpose of USAID?
The organization has long been seen as a vehicle for expressing American goodwill in the world – with food aid packages that carry the USAID label in some of the poorest parts in the world. But it is also a US foreign policy tool, with which it sends funds to countries with a strategic geographical position and prevents humanitarian crises from turning into national security dangers.
In the creation of the organization, President John Kennedy had said that “the financial collapse of these free but less developed nations (…) would be devastating to our national security, detrimental to our comparative prosperity and offensive to our consciousness.”
Where is the American external help going?
USAID funded projects in about 130 countries in 2023. The top 10 recipients were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.
It is noted that USAID manages the assistance mission, which can include not only emergency food and humanitarian aid, but also military funding for US allies and partners, such as Israel and Taiwan. The assistance to support “peace and security” amounted to 18% of the total in 2022.
How much do the US spend on external help?
Foreign aid is less than 1% of the federal budget. However, surveys and polls have shown that Americans generally believe that the US is spending much more on foreign aid, with many incorrectly believing that it accounts for 25% of the federal budget.
Why Trump and Musk want to review USAID function?
Trump has made it clear that he wishes for overseas spending to be closely aligned with his approach to “first America”. For USAID, it had stated that its senior officials were “radical crazy”. So one of his first actions after returning to power was the signing of an executive decree with which he ceased almost all international assistance for 90 days.
The programs, including those who provide medicines to the poorest in the world and provide them with stocks of clean water, had to stop overnight.
Tensions between the White House and the USAID escalated last weekend when Ilon Mask’s associates – to which Trump has commissioned to detect possible cuts in federal budget spending – were unable to gain access to financial data to the USAid headquarters.
On Monday (3/2), Musk told X that “on USAID issues, I examined it in detail with [τον πρόεδρο] And he agreed that we must close it. “
Musk’s intense aversion to the International Support Organization seems to began just at the end of last year, as he began to criticize him publicly. The reason was an interview by conservative activist Mike Benz on Joe Rogan’s podcast. “Your brain is fooled when you see the phrase” USAID “. It is not an assistance organization, it is the CIA’s “showcase”, “Benz said, triggering a Musk comment storm last December, such as being a” criminal organization “and that it must” die “.
At the same time, at the beginning of last week, the White House posted a list of USAID projects, which said they prove “waste and abuse”, including a $ 1.5 million grant to LGBTQ group in Serbia, $ 2.5 million. For electric vehicles in Vietnam and $ 6 million for tourism in Egypt. The Washington Post reports that 11 of the 12 allegations in this press release are false or inaccurate.
Can Trump close USAID?
While it is clear that the White House has a significant influence on USAID, its power is limited. This means that Trump cannot simply abolish USAID by signing an executive decree – and any such attempt will face strong challenges in the courts and in Congress.
To close the USAID would probably require Congress’s approval – where Trump’s Republican Party holds a small majority in both bodies. That is why the main choice that the government is considering is to make the USAid branch of the State Department.
Already, however, the largest US government union and a union of foreign workers has sued the Trump government last Thursday in an attempt to overthrow the sudden dissolution of USAID. Of course, the possible abolition of USAID would probably have popular support in the US. Polls have long been shown that US voters are in favor of reducing foreign aid costs.
What would be the impact of USAID closure?
Given how big the US funding is, any changes in the way this money is spent will undoubtedly be felt around the world. USAID activities varies from the provision of additive members to soldiers injured in Ukraine, until the clearance of land mines and the reduction of Ebola’s spread to Africa.
After announcing the freezing of spending abroad for 90 days, US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said that “every dollar” must be “justified” with evidence showing that the US is making the US safer and stronger.
For the time being, throughout Africa, hundreds of thousands of USAID school meals have been left without food, medicines remain in warehouses, and have stopped many educational programs for girls who aimed to educate them and prevent marriage in childhood. .
