The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it is eliminating more than 90% of the United States Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts, as well as $60 billion in total US assistance around the world.
The administration’s proposed cuts would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in ongoing legal battles with the administration.
The Trump administration outlined its plans in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of the federal lawsuits on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s disclosures also provide insight into the scope of the administration’s retreat from US aid and development assistance abroad, as well as decades of US policy that foreign aid benefits US interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and forming alliances.
President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk have targeted foreign aid more aggressively and quickly than any other target in their effort to reduce the size of the federal government. Both men argue that USAID projects promote a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.
On January 20, Trump issued an order for a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs should continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost immediately.
The funding freeze has halted thousands of US-funded programs abroad, as the administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams have forced the majority of USAID staff to leave or be fired.
Nonprofits owed money on contracts with USAID describe Trump political appointees and members of Musk’s teams terminating USAID contracts around the world at breakneck speed, with no time for any meaningful review, according to federal court filings released Wednesday.
“‘There are MANY more terminations coming, so please gear up!'” lawyers for the nonprofits wrote, quoting a USAID official’s email to staff on Monday.
The State Department stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had reviewed the terminations.
Overall, the Trump administration plans to cancel 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, resulting in a $54 billion cut. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were cut, totaling $4.4 billion.
The Washington Free Beacon was the first to report on the memo.
The memo described the administration as being prompted by a federal court order that gave officials until the end of the day Wednesday to lift the Trump administration’s month-long freeze on foreign aid funding.
“In response, State and USAID moved rapidly,” the memo said, targeting a large number of USAID and State Department foreign aid programs for contract termination.
The nonprofits, along with thousands of contractors who have owed billions of dollars in payments since the freeze began, describe the mass contract terminations as a ruse to avoid complying with the order to temporarily lift the funding freeze.
Following repeated warnings from the federal judge in the case, Trump administration officials announced Wednesday that they had resumed paying USAID bills after a month-long halt, freeing up a few million of billions of dollars owed.
