By Jeff Mason and Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he thinks he will wind down the U.S. Agency for International Development, in what would be a dramatic overhaul of how the world’s largest single donor allocates foreign assistance.
When a reporter said to Trump it sounded like he was going to “wind down” the agency, Trump chuckled and said “I think so.”
Chaos has consumed the agency, which distributes billions of dollars of humanitarian aid around the world, since Trump ordered a freeze on most U.S. foreign aid hours after taking office and tasked billionaire Elon Musk, who has falsely accused USAID of being a “criminal” organization, with scaling down the agency.
“He’s done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID … radical left lunatics,” Trump said, without providing evidence of fraud, adding that he could see Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of the agency.
While some of the money was well spent, Trump said he may read a list on Wednesday of “15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It has to be corrupt,” he said, adding, without evidence: “Nobody could approve that. They can only approve that if they were getting kickbacks.”
Trump’s actions have raised questions from Democrats over their legality and any wind-down of the agency is likely to have dramatic consequences for global life-saving aid from the United States.
In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed, partly via USAID, $72 billion of aid worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
And yet it is less than 1% of its total budget.
Hundreds of USAID programs covering billions of dollars worth of lifesaving aid across the globe came to a grinding halt after Trump on Jan. 20 ordered a freeze of most U.S. foreign aid, saying he wanted to ensure it is aligned with his “America First” policy.
The State Department issued worldwide stop-work directives after Trump’s freeze order, with the exception of emergency food assistance. Experts warned that the move risks killing people.
Since then, dozens of USAID career staff have been put on leave and hundreds of contractors have been left in a severe financial crunch with some already having to lay off staff and millions of dollars in unpaid invoices.
On Monday, Rubio told reporters he was now the acting head of USAID, calling the agency “completely unresponsive” and accusing the staff there of being “unwilling to answer simple questions” about programs.
He informed Congress in a letter on Monday of the looming reorganization of the agency, saying some parts of USAID might be absorbed by the State Department and the remainder may be abolished.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, said she found Rubio’s notification “wholly insufficient on the law and devoid of any rationale for the drastic, abrupt action the administration has taken, with no prior notice to Congress.”
Senators Brian Schatz and Chris Van Hollen have said they would block confirmation of Trump’s nominees for State Department positions under rules that allow them to hold up nominations even if the Republican majority of the chamber want them to move forward.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Daniel Wallis)
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