Trump Suspends U.S. Foreign Aid Programs After Inauguration

United States (U.S) President Donald Trump has signed an executive order halting all foreign development assistance for 90 days to allow assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy. 

In the order, Trump said the U.S foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and are in many cases against their values. 

He said the aids serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.

Trump stated that no further U.S foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States. 

“All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order,” reads part of the executive order.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority.

Review, Determination and Resumption

Reviews of each foreign assistance program shall be ordered by the responsible department and agency heads under guidelines provided by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of OMB.

The department and agency heads responsible, in consultation with the Director of OMB, will determine within 90 days of this order whether to continue, modify, or terminate each foreign assistance program.

These decisions will be based on review recommendations and require the concurrence of the Secretary of State.

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Further, new obligations and disbursements of foreign development assistance funds may resume for a program before the end of the 90-day period if a review is conducted.

The Secretary of State or their designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB, can decide to continue the program in its current or modified form.

Additionally, any other new foreign assistance programs and obligations must be approved by the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB.

“The Secretary of State may waive the pause in Section 3(a) for specific programs,” Trump said.

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Trump Withdraws U.S from WHO

Besides, Trump signed another executive withdrawing U.S from the World Health Organization (WHO).

He said the decision made in 2020 is due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.  

In addition, Trumps said the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the U.S, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.

He pointed that China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the U.S, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.  

“The U.S intends to withdraw from the WHO.  The Presidential Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations signed on January 20, 2021, that retracted the United States’ July 6, 2020, notification of withdrawal is revoked,” reads part of the order.

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