US President Donald Trump has signed an order to temporarily suspend all US foreign aid programs for 90 days until a review is conducted to determine whether they meet his political goals.
This was reported by AP , UNN and UNN.
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It is unclear how much aid will be initially affected by the order, given that Congress has already appropriated funds for many programs that should be spent, if not already.
One of the executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office states that “foreign aid and bureaucracy are not in the American interest and in many cases are contrary to American values” and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in other countries that are directly opposed to harmonious and stable relations between and within countries.
Therefore, Trump announced that “no further foreign assistance from the United States should be provided unless it has been 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 a hearing last week that ”
Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we enact must be justified by answering three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?
The order Trump signed leaves Rubio or his designee the right to make such decisions 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 aid.
Trump has long been opposed to foreign aid, despite the fact that it typically accounts for about 1% of the federal budget. The only exceptions are, for example, the billions of dollars allocated to arm Ukraine. However, Trump has been critical of such amounts of aid to our country.
According to the latest official accounting, under the Biden administration, foreign aid totaled $68 billion for international programs as of mid-December 2023. These funds have been allocated for disaster relief to health care and pro-democracy initiatives in 204 countries and regions.
According to media reports, the largest recipients of US aid - Israel ($3.3 billion a year), Egypt ($1.5 billion a year) and Jordan ($1.7 billion a year) - are unlikely to see a dramatic reduction, as these amounts are part of long-term packages that have a decades-long history and, in some cases, are governed by contractual obligations.
Recall
Future US President Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine and prevent World War III. The politician said this at a rally in Washington on January 19, assuring that his team is “close to it.