By now, you’ve no doubt seen headlines and heaps of coverage on President Trump’s ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid’ Executive Order (EO), which has predominantly impacted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). You’ve probably read about these tariffs too, or at least heard of them.
With so much noise on this issue, we thought we’d dig into how the world’s response to these funding cuts sheds light on a much bigger problem than just government spending.
The Foreign Aid Executive Order
On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed the ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid‘ EO, claiming that the U.S. “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” Instead, these bodies “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,” the EO continued.
As a result, Trump implemented:
- “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy. All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority.
- “Reviews of United States foreign assistance programs. Reviews of each foreign assistance program shall be ordered by the responsible department and agency heads under guidelines provided by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of OMB.
- “Determinations. The responsible department and agency heads, in consultation with the Director of OMB, will make determinations within 90 days of this order on whether to continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program based upon the review recommendations, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State.
- “Resumption of paused development assistance funding. New obligations and disbursements of foreign development assistance funds may resume for a program prior to the end of the 90-day period if a review is conducted, and the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB, decide to continue the program in the same or modified form. Additionally, any other new foreign assistance programs and obligations must be approved by the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB.”
What Happened Next?
According to the press, Trump’s EO immediately led to a disruption in the “global fight against modern slavery,” evidently “women and girls” are most “at risk” as a result of these temporary cuts, while “millions will be affected” across the world. The Amazon rainforest will collapse, HIV is going to explode, Russian influence is going to takeover, and marginalized communities around the world won’t have anyone to help them, at least, that’s if you read the Associated Press reports.
In reality, Sec. of State Marco Rubio signed a waiver allowing core “life-saving” humanitarian needs to be met, according to the Center for American Progress. And if all of these programs are essential, they’ll be back on the books within the 90 day window. More than that, if these programs are this essential, why are they dependent on just American funding to sustain themselves entirely?
Work Doesn’t Have To Halt
Christian groups across “Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia,” have all continued to work, despite the suspension. “We have chosen this course for the time being because as a Christian organization, we center our decisions on the worth and dignity of ALL people—the people we serve and our staff,” Medical Teams International told TIME Magazine.
How Do The Tariffs Relate To These Issues?
Technically, Trump’s tariffs don’t really relate to the work of USAID, but more to the larger global response to Trump’s moves since reentering office.
Trump has threatened huge tariffs against nations who many feel are doing harm to the U.S. For example, Trump threatened China, Mexico and Canada with tariffs as a result of the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.”
“Chinese tariffs on US coal, gas, and oil are unlikely to have a significant impact or a negative impact on the US economy,” Hudson Institute fellow John Lee told DCNF. “These are commodities which the US can sell to other markets quite easily. For example, the US is the world’s largest exporter of LNG and can sell more to the UK and EU. Chinese tariffs on agricultural machinery, trucks and large cars are also not overly significant because China is not a major buyer of these American products.” Within days of Trump’s tariff threats against China, Taiwan promised to invest more in the U.S. This is just one example of how using America’s financial strength can benefit us all. China also almost-immediately opened up talks in order to avoid another set of Trump’s tariffs.
Canada’s soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau buckled to Trump’s tariffs shortly after they were threatened, promising at least #1.3 billion toward increasing our northern border security. Cartels were also designated terrorist organizations by Canada. Together, the U.S and Canada will now work to combat “organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering,” Trudeau revealed on social media.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gave into Trump within hours of the tariffs being announced, promising to deploy $10,000 National Guard soldiers along the border in exchange for a 30-day pause on the tariffs.
