Washington: US President Donald Trump plans to merge the country’s International Aid Office, USAID, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the context of a wider shake aimed at cutting staff and boosting the costs of aid according to “America” policy.
Trump has commissioned Elon Musk, the billionaire to direct his attempt to shrink the federal government to oversee the project. On Sunday, Trump said that USAID “had been run by a bundle of radical crazy and we take them out”, while Musk called it a “criminal organization” without providing evidence and said it was “time to die. “
What is USAID and how is it funded?
USAID was founded in 1961 by Democratic President John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War with the aim of better coordinating external aid, already a basic US foreign policy platform to tackle Soviet influence.
It now manages about 60% of US external aid and disbursed $ 43.79 billion in the financial year 2023. About 130 countries helped. USAID is funded by Congress, based on administration requests.
The CRS said USAID is helping “strategically important countries and countries in conflict, leads to our efforts to relieve poverty, diseases and humanitarian need and assists US commercial interests by supporting the ability of economic growth and building countries. developing countries to participate in world trade. “
The top recipients of the aid in 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, the Congo People’s Republic, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.
How much do the US spend on help and how is it compared?
In the financial year 2023, the United States has crossed a total of $ 72 billion in aid worldwide and about 42% of the total humanitarian aid monitored by the United Nations in 2024. AIDS treatments, energy security and corruption work.
In recent years, according to a report by the Brookings Foundation since September, US aid costs were about 0.33% of GDP. It was weighed to 3% of GDP in the 1950s with the Marshall Plan program to rebuild Europe after World War II. During the Cold War, they ranged from 1% to just less than 0.5%.
While the United States is giving more official government aid than any other country, its contribution as a percentage of national income was at the bottom of the list for rich countries in 2020, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In 2023, Norway exceeded the list at 1.09% of gross national income, while the United States delayed 0.24%, along with Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Spain.
Is support for foreign aid bilateral?
According to Brookings, democratic administrations and legislators are historically more supportive than Republicans, but every post -war president, whether democratic or Republican, has been a strong external supporter from Trump.
He noted that the proposals of the first Trump administration to reduce the budget of US international affairs at one third were rejected, as they tried to delay parliamentary examination of supplementary legislation in 2024 and in a bilateral vote in June 80 % of the members of the Republican House of Representatives rejected the amendment to eliminate external aid from the 2025 budget.
Who has run USAID?
Under former President Joe Biden, USAID is run by Irish-American diplomat Samantha Power, a self-proclaimed idealist who served as a UN ambassador under Barack Obama.
Its top priorities in March 2023’s policy were the crisis of climate, resulting from the tide of authoritarianism and the promotion of economic growth and equal opportunities.
In an interview this month, Power underlined the role of USAID in promoting the soft power of the US.
“The best proof of USAID’s contribution is to increase the propaganda propaganda supported by Roccia and Russia that abuses usaid and our work around the world,” he said, using the initials of China’s official name, Laiki Republic of China.
Trump’s opposition and impact
In a January 20 executive mandate announced a 90 -day pause in most foreign aid, Trump said that the US industry and bureaucracy are not in line with US interests and in many cases opposed to US values. “
“They are serving to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas to foreign countries that are directly vice versa in harmonious and stable internal relationships in and between countries,” he said.
In a note, the administration urged USAID employees to participate in an effort to transform how Washington has assistance according to Trump’s “America” policy and threatened disciplinary action to violate orders.
The actions rang alarm bells from refugee camps in Thailand to Ukraine War Zones, with humanitarian and United Nations organizations that say they could deal with drastic curbs in their ability to distribute food and shelter.
A source with the knowledge of USAID’s work said that his folding at the Foreign Ministry would be a great departure.
USAID has previously been able to provide humanitarian aid to countries with which Washington has no diplomatic relations, including Iran and North Korea. This sometimes helped build bridges, the source said and the benefit could be lost if its activities were clearly linked to political goals.
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