The Trump Administration has officially ended the US Agency for International Development’s role in implementing foreign assistance, marking the most sweeping restructuring of American foreign aid in decades.
As of July 1, all foreign aid programs will now be managed directly by the US Department of State under a newly restructured model aimed at aligning international assistance with America’s strategic and economic interests.
“The era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has come to an end,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “From now on, American aid will promote American priorities.”
USAID had decades and seemingly unlimited taxpayer money to advance American influence, promote economic development worldwide, and allow billions to stand on their own two feet. But beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War, Rubio wrote. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown.
The administration’s decision follows a review of more than $715 billion in inflation-adjusted foreign aid spending since the end of the Cold War. According to the review, USAID’s programs frequently failed to achieve development goals, while US favorability measurably declined in key regions that received substantial funding.
For example, sub-Saharan African nations, despite receiving $165 billion in US assistance since 1991, voted with America at the United Nations only 29% of the time in 2023, the lowest rate of any region.
In the Middle East and North Africa, $89 billion in aid has produced lower favorability ratings for the U.S. than for China in all but one country.
Under the new model, the administration is replacing what it calls a “charity-based” foreign aid philosophy with a system based on trade, investment, and strategic partnership. Future assistance will be time-limited, results-driven, and focused on countries that demonstrate both the ability and willingness to build sustainable, independent economies.
Another major change will be symbolic but strategic: All aid will now be clearly branded with the American flag. No more anonymous non-governmental organizations will be used to pass through money from US taxpayers.
“Recipients deserve to know that the assistance they receive is not a handout from an unknown organization—it’s an investment from the American people,” Secretary Rubio said.
The administration also emphasized its intent to counter China’s influence in the developing world by offering an alternative to Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy and state-centered aid model.
The State Department says it is already making progress by streamlining appropriations, cutting red tape, and empowering diplomats on the ground with real-time authority and feedback systems. Aid will now be delivered through regional bureaus, which are tasked with ensuring every dollar advances U.S. interests.
The administration also announced it is pushing international partners and allies, especially the United Nations and NATO members, to take on a greater share of funding for global development and security projects.
“For Americans and many around the world,” Secretary Rubio wrote on Tuesday, “July 1 marks the beginning of a new era of global partnership, peace, investment, and prosperity.”
This will not be the win we think it is. Once the Republicans lose control, it will be just as easy or easier to return to the good old days and hide the grift inside the state department. As a family member who left the the state department decades ago told me, “We have ‘desks’ for nations and regions around the world within state; yet there is no United States desk where good people look out for our interests.”
Most assuredly, Daddy’s Little Princess has a contingency plan already underway!
History will record that the USAID is the most corrupt government agency that has ever existed.