President Donald Trump has frozen virtually all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for emergency food and military funding for Israel and Egypt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo to staff.
The broad directive appears to cover everything from development assistance to military aid, including Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons from Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, as it prepares to oppose a Russian invasion.
The edict also means that US financing for PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS effort that purchases antiretroviral medications to treat the disease in underdeveloped nations, primarily in Africa, would be paused for at least many months.
PEPFAR, which was launched in 2003 by President George W. Bush, is credited with saving about 26 million lives and had previously enjoyed strong popular support across partisan lines in Washington.
However, the document specifically highlighted exceptions for military assistance to Israel, whose long-standing significant arms packages from the US have grown even more during the Gaza conflict, and Egypt, which has received generous US defence funding since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Rubio also included an exemption for US donations to emergency food assistance, which have been provided in response to global crises such as Sudan and Syria.
The Democratic Party’s lawmakers said that more than 20 million people relied on PEPFAR drugs and 63 million on US-funded anti-malaria initiatives, including nets.
“For years, Republicans in Congress have decried what they see as a lack of U.S. credibility vis-à-vis countries like China, Russia, and Iran,” said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Lois Frankel.
“Now our credibility is on the line, and it appears we will cut and run from American commitments to our partners around the world,” they wrote in a letter.
Washington has traditionally used aid as a tool of foreign policy, claiming to care about development while making a contrast with China, which is primarily interested in acquiring natural resources.
Meeks and Frankel also stated that Congress has approved funds for international assistance and that they will work to see it implemented.
The letter permits the State Department to grant more exclusions on a case-by-case basis, as well as temporarily support staff wages and other administrative expenses.
The message requested an internal evaluation of all foreign assistance within 85 days.
In justifying the freeze, Rubio, a senator who supported development assistance, said that it was impossible for the incoming administration to review whether existing foreign aid pledges “are not duplicated, are effective, and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”
The United States has long been the world’s largest donor in terms of dollars, but a number of European countries, particularly those in Scandinavia, contribute much more as a percentage of their GDP.
The United States provided more than $64 billion in international development aid in 2023, the most recent year for which figures were available, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises industrialised countries.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order halting foreign assistance for 90 days, but it was unclear how it would be executed.
Oxfam, an anti-poverty organisation, said Trump was breaking with a historic American consensus on foreign aid.
“Humanitarian and development assistance accounts for only around one percent of the federal budget; it saves lives, fights diseases, educates millions of children, and reduces poverty,” Oxfam America president Abby Maxman said in a statement.
“Suspending and ultimately cutting many of these programs could have life-or-death consequences for countless children and families who are living through crisis,” she said.
