WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Trump administration has put on hold all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, for review. He is initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.
The U.S. Department of State said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the freeze consistent with President Donald Trump's Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.
Shortly after assuming power for the second term, Trump had stated that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people. 'Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative. The Secretary is proud to protect America's investment with a deliberate and judicious review of how we spend foreign assistance dollars overseas,' the Department said in a press release.
Marco Rubio said, 'Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?'
It comes within a week of the United States' decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
An executive order to this effect issued by President Donald Trump will bring U.S. involvement in WHO to an end in 12 months, preventing the flow of a large amount of funding from Washington to the cash-strapped UN health agency.
The United States was WHO's largest single donor, accounting for 18 per cent of the agency's budget in 2023.
According to Trump, the U.S. Government was paying too much money to WHO compared to other donors.
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