US 'officially cancelling 83%' of USAID programs, Rubio says

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the Trump administration's purge of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is now finished.

In a post on X, Rubio said "after a 6 week review, we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID."

"The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States."

He added that the "approximately 1000" leftover contracts will be directly run by his State Department. Opposition lawmakers say that would be illegal as congressional approval is required for such a change.

The White House has not been transparent on which contracts have been cut and which are to be kept.

What is behind the purge?

When Donald Trump began his second term as US president on January 20, one of his first actions was ordering an immediate 90-day suspension of all foreign aid. The administration justified the decision by claiming USAID is a wasteful use of government resources.

The audit was overseen by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is run by right-wing billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk.

Thousands of staff were relieved of their duties and contracts were terminated, causing chaos within both the administration and around the world. Aid groups say that areas in critical need of assistance are now seriously threatened, such as famine prevention in the DR Congo or clean drinking water in Burkina Faso.

The cuts are considered by experts to be an historic departure from how the US carries out foreign policy, moving away from strengthening alliances through aid to instead doubling down on Trump's "America First" ideology. The Musk-led DOGE project is seen as key to advancing the ideology and it has been open about its intentions to gut government spending while consolidating agencies under the Executive Branch.

In his announcement, Rubio praised DOGE for carrying out the purges. Musk later replied, calling the cuts "tough, but necessary," adding "the important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State."

What is USAID?

USAID was founded in 1961 to deliver humanitarian aid in critical regions around the world.

Although the agency operates directly in 60 countries, most of the work is done by contractors which receive funding from USAID. The work often includes disease and famine prevention, providing vaccinations, and disaster relief.

With a reported budget of over $40 billion (€37 billion) in 2023, the agency is one of the largest spenders on global aid.

Edited by: Natalie Muller