Explainer

How Trump’s Dismantling of USAID Will Affect Foreign Aid

Aid workers move bags of yellow lentils at an aid operation run by USAID, in Mekele, Ethiopia, in 2021.

Photographer: Jemal Countess/Getty Images 

The Trump administration has dismantled the United States Agency for International Development, eliminating the vast majority of the agency’s programs while preparing to fold the remainder into the State Department. The sweeping cuts will slash tens of billions of dollars in assistance that the US provides to developing nations, from efforts to combat malaria in Africa to farming assistance in Ukraine.

USAID had been the world’s largest foreign aid agency, with roughly $43 billion worth of projects in 2023.