- Over 80% of programs canceled; remainder absorbed by US State Department
- USAID officially closed after progressive dismantling by Trump citing wasteful spending
- UN reports deepest ever cuts to international humanitarian funding
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially ceased operations after President Donald Trump progressively dismantled the agency, citing concerns over alleged wasteful spending.
By March, over 80% of USAID’s programs had been terminated, and on Tuesday, the remaining initiatives were formally integrated into the State Department.
The closure of USAID, which managed US government aid as the world’s largest donor, drew sharp criticism from former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
A report published in the Lancet medical journal warned that these aid reductions could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, with about one-third of those at risk being children. The authors described the figures as “staggering.”
However, a State Department official contested the study’s assumptions and maintained that the US would continue delivering aid in a “more efficient” manner, according to AFP.
Established in 1961, USAID employed roughly 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom worked overseas, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The controversial cuts began early in Trump’s second term, when billionaire and former presidential adviser Elon Musk was tasked with reducing the federal workforce.
Humanitarian organizations worldwide strongly condemned the move.
Among the affected programs were initiatives providing prosthetic limbs to injured Ukrainian soldiers, clearing landmines in various countries, and efforts to contain Ebola outbreaks in Africa.
As of Wednesday morning, the agency’s website still showed a message stating that all USAID direct-hire personnel worldwide had been placed on administrative leave since February 23.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the remaining 1,000 programs would now be managed under his department.
“This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end,” Rubio stated on Tuesday. “Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests,” he wrote on Substack.
Trump consistently emphasized that overseas spending should align closely with his “America First” policy.
In a video conference with U2 singer Bono, former Presidents Bush and Obama criticized the cuts to USAID.
Bush, a fellow Republican, highlighted the impact of reductions to an AIDS and HIV program started under his administration, credited with saving 25 million lives. He told USAID workers, “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”
Obama, a Democrat, called the dismantling of USAID a “travesty” and “a tragedy,” praising the agency’s critical global work.
Humanitarian advocate Bono spoke about the millions who could die due to the cuts, telling attendees, “They called you crooks when you were the best of us.”
USAID had been a cornerstone of the global aid system. Following Trump’s cuts, other countries such as the UK, France, and Germany also reduced their aid budgets.
Last month, the United Nations reported facing “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector.”
