Donald Trump to cut over 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts, $60 billion aid loss

The Trump administration on Wednesday said that it would cut more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) foreign aid contracts, along with $60 billion in total US assistance globally.

The cuts, as outlined by the administration, would leave very few USAID projects remaining for advocates to try to protect in their ongoing legal battles with the administration, as reported by the Associated Press.

The Trump administration outlined its plans in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and in filings related to one of the federal lawsuits on Wednesday.

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These disclosures provide insight into the extent of the administration's pullback from US aid and development assistance abroad, marking a departure from decades of US policy that viewed foreign aid as a means to stabilize other countries and economies, while also building alliances that serve US interests, said the AP report.

President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk have hit foreign aid harder and faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both men say USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.

Trump on Jan. 20 ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight. The funding freeze has stopped thousands of US-funded programs abroad, as the administration and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency teams have pulled the majority of USAID staff off the job through forced leave and firings.

In the federal court filings Wednesday, nonprofits owed money on contracts with USAID describe both Trump political appointees and members of Musk's teams terminating USAID's contracts around the world at breakneck speed, without time for any meaningful review, they say.

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"'There are MANY more terminations coming, so please gear up!''' lawyers for the nonprofits wrote, quoting an email sent by a USAID official to staff on Monday.

The State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had reviewed the terminations.

In all, the Trump administration said it will eliminate 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, for a cut of $54 billion. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were being eliminated, for a cut of $4.4 billion.

The Washington Free Beacon was the first to report on the memo.

The memo described the administration as spurred by a federal court order that gave officials until the end of the day Wednesday to lift the Trump administration's monthlong block on foreign aid funding.

“In response, State and USAID moved rapidly,” targeting USAID and State Department foreign aid programs in vast numbers for contract terminations, the memo said.

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The nonprofits, among thousands of contractors, owed billions of dollars in payment since the freeze began, call the en masse contract terminations a maneuver to get around complying with the order to lift the funding freeze temporarily.

Trump administration officials — after repeated warnings from the federal judge in the case — also said Wednesday they had finally begun paying USAID bills again after the monthlong halt on payments, freeing for delivery a few million of billions of dollars owed. 

(With inputs from AP)