Why Trump and Musk want to close USAID?

Republicans want the State Department to take more control of USAID’s policy and funds. Democrats want USAID’s autonomy and authority

Hyderabad: Since Donald Trump took office as President of the United States, the first organisation to face the axe was the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest provider of humanitarian, development and security assistance.

At its Washington headquarters, a yellow police tape blocked lawmakers and hundreds of employees from accessing the lobby and computer systems.

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Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, and now the chief ally of Trump, called it “not an apple with a worm in it, what we have is just a ball of worms.”

Trump echoed Musk’s thoughts by saying that shutting down USAID “should have been done a long time ago.”

Let’s have a look at what is USAID and why Trump and Musk want to see it dead when the US foreign assistance amounts to less than 1 per cent of the US budget.

What is USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an  agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering foreign aid and medical care to civilians across the global.

With a budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all US foreign assistance.

The supporters of USAID say US assistance in countries counters Russian and Chinese influence. China has its own “belt and road” foreign aid programme worldwide operating in many countries that the US also wants as partners.

Who created USAID?

Former US President John F Kennedy created USAID at the height of the United States’ ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union. He wanted a more efficient way to counter Soviet influence abroad through foreign assistance. Through USAID, Kennedy united several foreign assistance organisations and programmes under one agency.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and Kennedy set up USAID as an independent agency in 1961.

USAID has outlived the Soviet Union, which fell in 1991.

What’s going on with USAID?

On his first day in office on January 20, Trump implemented a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance. Peter Marocco — a political appointee — drafted a note that shut down thousands of programmes around the world.

USAID’s website and its account on the X platform have been taken down.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will keep life-saving emergency programmes during the freeze. He said there will be a review of which projects make “America safer, stronger or more prosperous.”

Meanwhile, there is confusion over what programmes are exempted from the Trump administration’s stop-work orders.

What do critics of USAID say?

Republicans want the State Department to take more control of USAID’s policy and funds. Democrats want USAID’s autonomy and authority.

Funding for United Nations agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights and refugee agencies, has been traditional targets for Republican administrations to cut.

The first Trump administration moved to reduce foreign aid spending, suspending payments to various UN agencies, including the UN Population Fund and funding to the Palestinian Authority.

In Trump’s first term, the US pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council and its financial obligations to that body. The US is also barred from funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA.

In a 2017 social media post, Mario Rubio said foreign assistance was “not charity,” that the US “must make sure it is well spent” and called foreign aid “critical to our national security.”

In 2023, Rubio sponsored a Bill that would have required US foreign assistance agencies to include more information on what organisations were implementing the aid on the ground.

Why is Musk going after USAID?

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has launched a sweeping effort empowered by Trump to cut trillions in government spending. USAID is one of his prime targets.

Musk alleges USAID funding has been used to launch deadly programmes and called it a ‘criminal organisation.’

Who gets affected?

Sub-Saharan Africa could suffer more than any other region during the aid pause. The US gave the region more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian assistance last year.

HIV patients in Africa found clinic doors locked. In Mexico, a shelter for migrants has been left without a doctor. A programme to provide mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela was disbanded.

In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called “Safe Mobility Offices” where migrants can apply to enter the US legally have shuttered.

How much does the US spend on foreign aid?

The US contributes 47 per cent to the global humanitarian appeal, which amounts to about USD 14 billion. Around USD 25 billion was allocated by USAID for the UN and its agencies during the five years between 2019 and 2024.

The World Food Programme, which helps people facing starvation because of conflicts, famines and natural disasters, was the main beneficiary with $16.8 billion allocated for it.

The UN Children’s Fund came next with a $2.7 billion allocation among the 20 UN agencies receiving aid.

The US is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance globally, although some other countries spend a bigger share of their budget on it.

What do Americans think of foreign aid?

About 6 in 10 US adults feel the US government was spending “too much” on foreign aid. About 9 in 10 Republicans and 55% of Democrats agreed that the country was overspending on foreign aid.

About 6 in 10 US adults said the government was spending “too little” on domestic issues that included education, health care, infrastructure, social security and medicare.

Americans say spending on foreign aid makes up 31 per cent of the federal budget rather than closer to one per cent or less.

Could Trump dissolve USAID?

Democrats say Presidents lack the constitutional authority to eliminate USAID. But it’s not clear what would stop him from trying.

In his first term, Trump tried to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third. When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to cut the flow of funds already appropriated by Congress for the foreign programmes.