Trump administration to slash 83% of USAID programmes

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday announced that 83 per cent of the US Agency for International Development's programmes will be cut.

Mr Rubio posted on X – the platform owned by Elon Musk, who is spearheading efforts to reduce US government waste and cull the federal workforce – to announce that 5,200 programmes would be cut in an effort to save money. The cuts come after a six-week review process and any remaining programmes will be administered under the State Department.

“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Mr Rubio said.

He thanked Mr Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which led efforts to identify programmes that should be discontinued. “Thank you to Doge and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform,” he said.

Former USAID employees condemned Mr Rubio’s decision and warned it threatened to further diminish American influence abroad.

“Marco Rubio has been very clear historically on the value of influential power, of soft power, of the role of USAID,” said Dave Harden, who served as the mission director of USAID in Gaza and the occupied West Bank from 2013 to 2016. “It's unequivocal what his positions have historically been. But he sold his soul in order to lick the boots of a would-be dictator.”

Mr Harden told The National he was worried about the impact the cuts would have on the Middle East, where USAID has historically had a large footprint, operating in nearly a dozen regional locations including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank.

“I would worry about Jordan and I always feel like there needs to be some help for Gaza,” he said. “And you want both Lebanon and Egypt to remain stable and you want Lebanon to be able to assert national authority over Hezbollah factions … all these things are at risk.”

One former senior employee, who was among hundreds laid off in January, feared the cuts would be “very harmful” for the region.

“I think [it will be] most harmful for places like Jordan, Egypt and Yemen,” the former USAID employee said.

The veteran Middle East-focused staffer added that a reduced USAID would have far-reaching implications. “My fear is that there is no more counterbalance to the increasingly hostile policies coming out of current White House.”

While Mr Trump and his allies argued that foreign assistance is wasteful and does not serve US interests, aid groups say the assistance supports US interests by promoting stability and health overseas. USAID backers also warn that countries like China and Russia will expand into the vacuum left by American withdrawal.