Trump order freezing foreign aid halts programs globally, prompts confusion and rush for waivers

Suspension affects humanitarian programs, counterterrorism efforts and weapons financing

- Alexander Ward, Gabriele Steinhauser & Michael R. Gordon

Trump administration order pausing almost all foreign aid has left counterterrorism training in Somalia, HIV treatment in Uganda, narcotics interdiction in Colombia, prosthetics for refugees from Myanmar, and many more U.S.-funded overseas assistance programs in sudden limbo.

The Jan. 24 directive stated that the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development "shall not provide foreign assistance" until a high-level review of the programs is completed, except to Israel and Egypt and in severe cases where emergency food assistance is needed.

USAID acting Administrator Jason Gray put dozens of agency officials on administrative leave Monday, saying they were suspected of seeking to circumvent Trump's orders. One agency staffer said 57 officials were put on leave.

"We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President's Executive Orders," Gray said in a message to the agency viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Rather than just pausing new funding, the order instructed U.S. government officials to issue so-called stop-work orders to nongovernmental organizations and aid groups to keep them from using U.S. funding they have already received.

Aid groups said the stop-work orders also prevent them from distributing life-saving supplies, such as early-childhood vaccines or bed nets to prevent malaria, that they have already purchased with U.S. money.

The three-month pause stunned U.S. officials and aid workers, who said the interruption in the roughly $60 billion foreign-aid budget for this year could severely damage vital programs in some countries and leave an opening for China and other adversaries to supplant Washington as a more reliable benefactor.