The impact of Trump's aid cuts

THE Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, which started a year ago yesterday, has caused the preventable deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and will contribute to millions more, researchers have estimated.

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A patient holds an HIV self-testing kit packet during an HIV awareness session at the Mphetsankhuli clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi.

(AFP)

Humanitarian efforts to fight diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis in some of the world’s poorest nations have been massively disrupted since Donald Trump froze US humanitarian aid immediately after being sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2025.

The freeze was initially said to be temporary.

However, in a cost-cutting spree advised by the world’s richest person Elon Musk, Trump eliminated 83 percent of programmes by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was then dismantled.

Other major Western donors including Britain, France and Germany then announced deep cuts to their own aid budgets, compounding funding shortfalls for already reeling humanitarian efforts.

Researchers have since been working to estimate the impact of the cuts by the US, which previously contributed more than 40 percent of all global aid.