Washington (AP) – dozens of high -ranking officials. Disassembled thousands of contractors. Freezing in billions of dollars of humanitarian aid in other countries.
In the past two weeks, President Donald Trump’s management has made significant changes to the US agency, which is commissioned to provide an aid organizations with the provision of humanitarian aid in overseas about whether they utilize programs such as nutritional support for undernourished infants and children can be continued.
The then President John F. Kennedy founded the USAI agency for international development, known as the USA, during the Cold War. Republicans and Democrats have fought for the agency and their financing in the decades since then.
Here is a look at the USA, its history and the changes that have accepted his office since Trump.
What is USAID?
Kennedy created USAID with the Soviet Union at the peak of the fight against the Cold War of the United States. He wanted a more effective way to counter the Soviet influence abroad through foreign aid, and saw the Foreign Ministry as frustrating bureaucratic.
The Congress said goodbye to the Foreign Assistance Act and Kennedy founded USAID in 1961 as an independent agency.
USAID survived the Soviet Union, which fell in 1991. Today, the supporters of the USA argue that the support of the United States in countries counters Russian and Chinese influence. China has its own “Belt and Road” program for foreign aids in many countries that also want the United States as a partner worldwide.
Critics say that the programs are wasteful and promote a liberal agenda.
What’s wrong with the USA?
On his first day of office on January 20, Trump implemented a 90-day freezing for foreign support. Four days later, Peter Marocco – a returning political representative from Trump’s first term – designed a tougher than expected interpretation of this order, a step that closes thousands of programs around the world and forced vacation and layoffs.
Foreign Minister Marco Rubio has moved more types of strictly refined emergency programs since then. However, confused which programs are liberated from the Stop work orders of the Trump government-and the fear of losing the US aid permanently-the aid and development work are still freezing worldwide.
Dozens of high -ranking civil servants were put on vacation, and thousands of contractors were released, and the employees were instructed on Monday not to get into the Washington headquarters. And the USAID website and its account on the X platform were depressed.
It is part of a procedure for the Trump administration that hits the federal government and its programs. But USAI and foreign aid are the hardest.
Rubio said the goal of the administration was a program-for-program check that makes projects “America safer, stronger or more successful”.
The decision to conclude the programs financed by the US during the 90-day check meant that the United States received “much more cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, development and security support, said Rubio.
What do critics of USASID say?
The Republicans usually urge the fact that the Foreign Ministry – the USA gives overall foreign policy guidelines – more control over its guidelines and funds. Democrats generally promote the USAID autonomy and authority.
The funding of agencies of the United Nations, including peace insurance, human rights and refugee authorities, were conventional goals for the cut in republican administration. The first Trump government applied for to reduce expenditure on foreign aid and to suspend payments to various UN agencies, including the UN population fund and the financing of the Palestinian authority.
During Trump’s first term, the USA withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and its financial obligations towards this facility. The United States is also excluded from the financing of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees or Unrwa in accordance with a legislative template signed by the then President Joe Biden last March.
As a Senator of Florida, Rubio often demanded more transparency for foreign aid expenses, but was generally supportive. In a social media contribution from 2017, Rubio said that foreign aid was “no charity organization” that the United States “has to ensure that it will be spent well” and described as “critical for our national security”.
In 2023, Rubio sponsored a legislative template that the US foreign aid agencies would have obliged to contain further information about which organizations implement the aid on site.
Why does Elon Musk USID go about?
Musks Department of Government Efficiency, known as Doge, has started a comprehensive effort that Trump emphasized to dismiss government workers and reduce the state expenditure. USAID is one of its main goals. Musk claims that the USAID financing was used to start fatal programs and called it a “criminal organization”.
What is affected by the USAID?
Africa south of the Sahara could suffer more than any other region during the aid break. The United States gave the region more than 6.5 billion US dollars in humanitarian aid last year. HIV patients in Africa, who were received in clinics that were financed by a recognized US program that complied with the global AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, was closed.
There are already effects in Latin America. In Mexico, busy protection for migrants in southern Mexico was left without a doctor. A program to support mental health for LGBTQ+ adolescent people who flee from Venezuela was dissolved.
In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so -called “safe mobility offices” in which migrants can apply to legally enter the USA.
The auxiliary community is struggling to take the full picture – how many thousands of programs were closed and how many thousands of workers have been assessed and released under freezing?
How much do the US output for foreign aid?
In the 2023 financial year, the United States spent a total of around 40 billion US dollars from foreign aid.
The United States is the largest provider of humanitarian aid worldwide, although some other countries spend a larger proportion of their budget for it. The foreign support is less than 1% of the US budget overall.
What do the Americans think about foreign aid?
About 6 out of 10 US-growing people said that according to a survey, the US government spent “too much” for foreign aid in March 2023 AP-NORC. When asked about certain costs, around 7 out of 10 US -growing people, said the US government had set too much money for the support of other countries. About 9 out of 10 Republicans and 55% of the Democrats agreed that the country was to be spent on foreign aid. At that time, about 6 out of US -growing people said that the government spent “too little” for domestic issues, including education, healthcare, infrastructure, social security and medicar.
Surveys have shown that US -growing people tend to overestimate the share of the federal budget, which is spent on foreign aid. Polls from the Kaiser Family Foundation have found that the Americans say on average that the expenditure on foreign aid is 31% of the federal budget instead of 1% or less.
Could Trump resolve USAID alone?
Democrats say that president lack the constitutional authority to eliminate USAid. But it is not clear what would prevent him from trying it.
A mini version of this legal dispute played in Trump’s first term when he tried to reduce the budget for foreign operations by a third.
When the congress refused, the Trump administration used freezing points and other tactics to reduce the funds already acquired by the congress for the foreign programs. The state accountability later decided that a law had violated the law to control control.
It is a law that we may hear about.
“Live after Executive Order, die of Executive Order,” said Musk on X -Saturday in relation to USA.
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Kinnard reported from Houston. Associated Press Writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
Knickmeyer can be reached at https://x.com/ellenknickmeyer, and Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/megkinnardap.
