Trump’s purge of USAID complete, with 83% of programmes gone, Secretary of State Rubio says
This move, following US President Trump’s executive order, has sparked controversy, with critics calling it illegal and harmful to US interests
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday the United States was cancelling 83 per cent of programmes at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid to give his administration time to assess overseas spending, with an eye to gutting programmes not aligned with his “America First” agenda.
“After a 6-week review, we are officially cancelling 83 per cent of the programmes at USAID,” Rubio said in a social media post.
“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,” he added.
“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18 per cent of programmes we are keeping … to be administered more effectively under the State Department,” he said. Democratic lawmakers and others call the shutdown of congressionally-funded programmes illegal, and said such a move required Congress’ approval.
Rubio on Monday notably thanked the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which billionaire Elon Musk was leading in a drive to slash costs and cut jobs across government departments.
