The executive order of President Trump who freezes most of the US foreign aid for 90 days has been launched in turbulence programs that fight hunger and fatal diseases, perform clinical studies and try to provide refuge for millions of displaced people throughout the world.
The main agency of the Government for the delivery of humanitarian aid, the US agency for international development, or Usaid, has been affected more hard. Trump accused the agency of rampant corruption and fraud, without providing evidence.
The Trump administration ordered thousands of agency workers to return to the United States from abroad; Put all the direct hires of the agency, including its list of foreign service officials, on indefinite administrative leave; and moved the supervision of the agency to the State Department.
On Thursday, the Trump administration has announced the intention to sell off the agency staff, reducing the USAID workforce of over 10,000 to perhaps a few hundred. On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked the elements of the Trump administration plan to close the agency, although the freezing of aid remains in force.
How many foreign aid provide the United States?
In total, the United States spent almost $ 72 billion in foreign assistance in 2023, which includes spending from Usaid, the State Department and programs managed by agencies such as Peace Corps.
As a percentage of its economic production, the United States – which have the largest economy in the world – give much less foreign help than other developed countries.
Usaid has spent about 38 billion dollars in health services, catastrophes farms, anti-partà efforts and other programs in the year 2023. This was less than 1 % of the federal budget.
Who are the recipients?
The freezing of Mr. Trump on US foreign aid does not apply to the support of weapons for countries such as Israel and Egypt, and even emergency food assistance is exempt.
In 2023, the last year for which complete data are available, Ukraine, which conducted a war against Russia from the vast scale of Moscow in February 2022, received $ 16.6 billion, assistance more American than any country or region. Most of this went to economic development, followed by humanitarian aid and safety.
Israel-Che was attacked by militants led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, triggering a 16-month war in Gaza-Ha received the second highest amount of US assistance: 3.3 billion dollars in 2023, mainly for safety.
Ethiopia, Somalia and Nigeria received more than $ 1 billion each in 2023, mainly for humanitarian aid.
In Latin America, Colombia was the best recipient of US aid, $ 705 million, in 2023.
How is the money spent?
Foreign aid of the United States can be structured as direct financial assistance to countries through non -governmental organizations; military support; food and medical assistance; o Technical competence.
Foreign aid can be a form of soft power, at the service of the strategic interests of a country, to the strengthening of the allies and helping to prevent conflicts.
In the case of Usaid, the money went to humanitarian aids, development assistance and support for the budget in Ukraine, a peace construction in Somalia, Surveillance of diseases in Cambodia, vaccination programs in Nigeria, HIV prevention in Uganda and assistance for maternal health in Zambia. The agency also contributed to containing important ebola outbreaks.
Contrary to a claim by Mr. Trump, the United States money was not used to send condoms to Gaza for use by Hamas, health officials say. In a statement at the end of last month, the International Medical Corps said he had received more than $ 68 million from Usaid since October 2023 for his work in the Enclave, but that “no funding from the United States government was used to obtain or distribute condoms “.
Instead, the group said, the money was used to manage two field hospitals, treat and diagnose malnutrition, deliver more than 5,000 children and perform 11,000 surgical interventions.
Why has freezing has been ordered?
For years, conservative critics have questioned the value of US foreign help programs. The Trump administration claims that it is necessary to stop foreign aid to examine whether US funds are wasted.
“Every dollar we spend, every program we finance and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,” said the secretary of state Marco Rubio in a recent declaration. “Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous? “
On his social platform of truth on Friday, Mr. Trump wrote: “Close it!” He said without evidence that the agency was “managed by radical crazy”.
Mr. Rubio, who previously spoke in support of the agency, targeted the organization, putting his employees to hit “deciding to be in some way a global charity body separated from the national interest”.
However, he insisted that the acquisition “was not to get rid of foreign aid”. He said during a recent interview with Fox News, “we have insubordination of rank” in the agency, adding that Usaid employees had been “completely non -collaborative, so we had no choice but to take dramatic measures to keep this thing under control”.
What were the effects of freezing aid?
While organizations around the world have wrapped up, the Trump administration has changed gears. Mr. Rubio announced that “life -saving humanitarian assistance” could continue, but that recovery would be “temporary”.
But at that point, hundreds of high officials and workers who help to distribute American aid had already been fired or put on leave and many help efforts remain paralyzed.
Dozens of clinical studies in southern Asia, Africa and Latin America have been suspended. The freezing left people with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies, cut them from researchers who monitored them and spread fear.
In South Africa, for example, freezing closed a study financed by the USAID on silicone rings included in women to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection.
About 2.4 million anti-malaria beds, produced to satisfy the orders financed by the United States and directed for countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, were blocked in the production structures in Asia. These contracts are frozen because the Usaid subcontractor who purchased them is not authorized to speak with the manufacturer according to the terms of the freezing.
In Uganda, a national anti-malaria program suspended the insecticide in the villages’ houses and interrupted the shipments of bed nets for distribution to pregnant women and young children.
And in Syria, the executive order threatens an US program in support of the security forces within a notorious field, known as the Hol, in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of members of the Islamic State and their families, have Said Syrian and US officials.
What was the reaction to the order of Trump?
Usaid officials have prepared for a drastic reduction of their ranks since the contractors began to let go a few days after the stop-work order of the Trump administration. But democratic legislators say that the move to dismantle the agency or merge with the State Department are illegal.
Two unions representing Usaid employees on Thursday have filed a cause against Mr. Trump, Mr. Rubio, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besent and the agencies that guide. The cause argued that the reduction of staff and the cancellation of global aid contracts were unconstitutional and violated the separation of powers.
He sought an injunction to stop the dismissal and theft of employees and the dismantling of the agency. He claimed that Usaid cannot be unrolled without the previous approval of the congress.
“What we are seeing is an illegal seizure of this agency by the Trump Administration in a clear violation of the basic constitutional principles,” said Robin Thurston, legal director for democracy, one of the two defense organizations that intended due to the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of government employees. He added that the administration had “generated a global humanitarian crisis”.
On Friday afternoon, after an audition, Judge Carl Nichols of the United States District Court for the Columbia district said that he would issue a temporary restrictive order on pause the administrative leave of 2,200 Usaid employees and a plan to collect almost all workers abroad of the agency within 30 days.