The Trump administration plans to eliminate roughly $60 billion in foreign aid spending and terminate 92% of grants issued by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The figures were included in a State Department memo detailing the results of a 90-day review of US foreign aid ordered by President Trump.
The audit identified nearly 15,000 grants and targeted almost 10,000 for elimination — the majority of which were issued by USAID.
The foreign aid grants heading for the chopping block include 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contracts, for a reduction of $54 billion, and 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants, amounting to a $4.4 billion cut.
The results of the audit were first reported by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday.
President Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid spending in an executive order issued on Day One of his second term.
The memo notes that the Trump administration was slapped with a federal court order giving officials until the end of the day Wednesday to unfreeze foreign aid funding.
“In response, State and USAID moved rapidly,” the memo stated.
The State Department vowed that under Trump, it will “reform the way the United States delivers foreign assistance” and rectify “decades of institutional drift,” according to the missive.
“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safe? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” the memo concluded.
USAID was one of the first federal agencies that Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, targeted for massive cuts based on allegations of widespread waste, fraud and abuse within the agency.
The Trump administration aims to gut USAID’s 10,000-people workforce to less than 300 and move what’s left of the agency’s staff and responsibilities to the State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was named acting director of USAID earlier this month amid the downsizing effort.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts paused the federal court order the State Department alluded to in its memo late Wednesday night.
The administrative stay places Washington-based US District Judge Amir Ali’s 11:59 p.m. Wednesday night deadline for federal foreign aid to resume on hold while the Supreme Court considers a Trump administration request to block the lower court judge’s order.
Nonprofits AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network, along with international development company DAI Global and refugee assistance organization HIAS – all of which receive funding from the State Department and USAID – sued the Trump administration over the 90-day foreign aid freeze.
The groups argue that the president exceeded his authority by virtually abolishing USAID, an independent agency, and cutting congressionally approved spending.
Roberts asked the plaintiffs in the case to respond to the Trump administration’s request by noon Thursday.
Trump administration officials indicated in a court filing Wednesday that they’ve begun making nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments owed by USAID – for work before Jan. 24 – that had been paused under the 90-day freeze, according to the Associated Press.
The filing stated that the secretary of state had ordered the past-due invoices from the plaintiffs to be “expedited for payment without the ordinary vetting procedures, in a good-faith effort to comply” with Ali’s order, according to Reuters.
