Purge of USAID ends with 83% of programmes cut, says Rubio

The Trump administration has eliminated 83% of programmes run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in a sweeping six-week purge that has done away with entire categories of development work that took decades to build up.

- Joseph Gedeon

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced yesterday that about 5,200 of USAID's 6,200 global programmes had been terminated. The surviving initiatives will be absorbed by the state department.

The mass terminations follow Donald Trump's 20 January executive order to freeze foreign assistance pending a review, claiming much of it pushed a liberal global agenda.

The abrupt dismantling overturns decades of bipartisan consensus that humanitarian and development assistance serves US security interests by stabilising fragile regions, fostering economic growth and building diplomatic goodwill.

The cuts were backed by the so-called "department of government efficiency", run by Trump's billionaire ally Elon Musk.

The New York Times reported last week that there had been serious clashes between Musk and Rubio at a recent cabinet meeting over proposed cuts to the state department.