Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the Trump administration has finished the six-week purging of programs from USAID. Rubio also said that 18% of aid and development programs that survived would be moved under the State Department. Rubio announced this in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) in one of his few public comments. The actions are a historic shift away from foreign policy and aid in the U.S. This process was executed by Trump’s appointees at the State Departments and Elon Musk working within the Department of Government Efficiency(DOGE). In his post on X, Rubio thanked DOGE, “our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform” in foreign aid.
On January 20th, Trump issued an executive order that directed a freeze on foreign assistance funding and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump also said that much of the resources and money funneled into foreign aid was wasteful and part of the liberal agenda. The review ended with 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs ultimately getting eliminated.
