Trump suspends US foreign aid for 90 days pending ‘American values’ review
While the affect on specific programmes remains unclear, the move signals a shift in foreign aid policy under the Trump administration
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending all American foreign help programmes for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals.
It was not immediately clear how much help would initially be affected by the Monday order as funding for many programmes has already been appropriated by Congress and is obliged to be spent, if that has not already happened.
The order, among many Trump signed on his first day back in office, said the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilise world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries”.
Consequently, Trump declared that “no further United States foreign help shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing last week that “every dollar we spend, every programme 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?”
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