Trump administration scraps over 80% of USAID programs: Top diplomat Rubio

The Trump administration has canceled more than 80 percent of all the programs at U.S. Agency for International Development following a six-week review, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday.

"The 5200 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," Rubio said in an X post that he sent from his personal account. He then pinned it on his timeline.

The remaining approximately 1,000 programs, he said, would now be administered "more effectively" under the State Department and in consultation with Congress.

U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office on January 20 and immediately ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid pending a review of whether the programs align with his "America First" foreign policy.

The order, and ensuing stop work orders, threw USAID into turmoil, halting the agency's operations around the world, jeopardizing the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.



Reuters