Trump freezes US foreign aid program for 90 days
- 21 January, 17:12
Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a decree suspending all US foreign aid programs for 90 days, in one of his first actions signed in his first day in office. The suspension is pending reviews to determine whether these programs are aligned with Trump administration’s policy goals.
“It is the policy of the United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States,” the decree reads.
The decree said that the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Donald Trump has long railed against foreign aid and has been critical of Biden administration military assistance to Ukraine worth billions of dollars. The US State Department reported last week that $69.2 billion has been allocated to Ukraine since last year, including $65.9 billion since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
According to director of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CPD), Oleksandr Kovalenko, the suspension does not apply to military aid for Ukraine. However, his claims have yet to be verified.
