Devex Pro Insider: Trump ordered to pay up, and USADF under siege

More questions than answers. That’s the only head-scratching conclusion I could come up with as I tried to think of a way to wrap up another dizzying week in Washington, D.C., where the battle between the Trump administration and the aid establishment rages on. And the enmity is palpable. I’ll get into the latest legal and congressional drama in just a bit, but first, in the category of “you can’t make this stuff up,” Peter Marocco — U.S. President Donald Trump’s point person for taking a hatchet to USAID — was literally blocked from entering the office of the U.S. African Development Foundation in an apparent last stand by the tiny government agency. On Wednesday, Marocco and a team from the Department of Government Efficiency were denied entry as USADF staffers huddled in the office out of sight — worried DOGE would seize access to the agency’s systems, fire staff, and cancel USADF’s contracts and grants. Not to be deterred, the next day Marocco and DOGE — with a U.S. marshal in tow — were back and this time gained entry as USADF staff ducked out. But the agency, which provides funding to small- and medium-sized organizations, entrepreneurs, and businesses across Africa, hasn’t given up. A few hours later, we found out that USADF President and CEO Ward Brehm is suing Marocco, DOGE, and Trump — the latest in a traffic jam of lawsuits over the administration’s aid shakedown. Also in today’s edition: The Trump administration faces another pay-up moment, Marocco questions the constitutionality of foreign aid, and a French university welcomes dejected American scientists. Bits and pieces A new countdown. Monday by 6 p.m. — that’s the latest deadline a U.S. district court judge gave the administration to pay its debts, or at least some of them. In a lengthy hearing Thursday, District Judge Amir Ali ordered the government to pay the organizations suing it — including nonprofits such as the AVAC and for-profits such as Chemonics and DAI — for work completed before Feb. 13. He called it “the first concrete step” toward the release of nearly $2 billion in suspended foreign aid. Laying down the law. Speaking of Marocco — and who in the aid community isn’t talking about him? — the controversial political appointee who serves as both acting deputy administrator of USAID and director of the State Department Office of Foreign Assistance, made a hotly anticipated appearance before U.S. lawmakers last week. Some of those lawmakers, however, said the closed-door session yielded little clarity on USAID’s dismantling, even though Marocco clearly made his feelings known. Sources tell Devex he called USAID “corrupt”; said it had lost its way by funding LGBTQ+ and “color revolutions”; brushed off concerns about the agency’s shoddy payment system; and revealed that the administration was exploring whether foreign aid is constitutional. He also claimed the foreign aid review process is methodical, thorough, and ongoing — which is strange, considering the government has said in court documents that the review had already been completed. In a statement afterward, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, said Marocco was asked why he hadn't implemented lifesaving waivers — as requested by his boss, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — or whether he had any evidence of the fraud and waste he often refers to. No answers, she said. In search of answers. U.S. Rep. Ami Bera, a Democrat from California, was one of those lawmakers looking forward to hearing what Marocco had to say. At a Devex Pro Briefing the day before the meeting, Bera said he wished the session was open to the public. He said he planned to call the Trump administration out over its treatment of USAID employees. “I know what I'm going to do, which is going to really emphasize how disrespectful they've treated folks that are patriots, folks that have worked for our country, and how dangerous it is because we need that talent.” Even more questions. Among the stacks of court documents we’ve been combing through, we found a “budget data request” issued by the Office of Management and Budget. This document was sent to all U.S. government agencies that fund foreign assistance with a questionnaire for yet another review of whether that assistance aligns with Trump’s “America First” policy. Among the questions: • Does your project encourage partners to adopt policies and take action to respect their national sovereignty and culture, strengthen patriotic values, and reduce dependence on external institutions? • Does your organization have an approach to transitioning projects off foreign assistance? • Does this project create measurable benefits for U.S. domestic industries, workforce, or economic sectors? • Does this project directly contribute to limiting illegal immigration or strengthening U.S. border security? Digging through court documents may be a thankless job, but you’d be surprised what treasures you might unearth. Case in point (and no pun intended): A legal declaration submitted by Marocco on Feb. 12 lists some of the USAID contracts and grants that have been terminated. Granted, this list was compiled before the mass termination of 10,000 USAID and State Department awards, but it still makes for interesting reading. Check it out here. ‘Pernicious tango.’ In another Devex Pro Briefing, Olusoji Adeyi, president of Resilient Health Systems and a former director at the World Bank, offered a different, no-holds-barred perspective of the U.S. aid cuts. He argues that the reliance on aid from the global north has allowed governments in the global south to evade responsibility for their citizens’ health. Adeyi pointed out that while some nations claim financial constraints, they are still spending billions on lavish palaces and cathedrals, and their parliaments have more Mercedes Benz cars than Stuttgart. It’s not that countries can’t do anything for themselves, he said. “You have this … pernicious tango in which northern donors — not all of them, not all the time, but the predominance — have been acting like drug dealers, and the governments of many of those low- and middle-income countries have been acting like drug addicts.” A healthier narrative. Dr. Seth Berkley, the former head of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, told Devex he’s written a book called “Fair Doses,” which is about the history of vaccine equity going all the way back to smallpox. The book also details what happened with the COVAX Facility, which was an attempt to achieve vaccine equity for COVID-19 vaccines. The publication date is Oct. 28, although the book will probably be available for preorder next month, he said. GiveWell gives big: Not everyone’s making cuts, though. GiveWell, the U.S.-based, effective altruism-focused charity approved a $96.3 million grant to the Against Malaria Foundation — the largest single grant in GiveWell’s history. The grant is expected to prevent over 4 million cases of malaria and avert more than 21,000 deaths. Bonjour Américains! The Aix Marseille Université announced it is ready to welcome American scientists — who, let’s face it, aren’t exactly getting the royal treatment from the Trump administration. “In a context where some scientists in the United States may feel threatened or hindered in their research, our university is announcing a program dedicated to welcoming scientists wishing to pursue their work in an environment conducive to innovation, excellence and academic freedom,” said the French university, which boasts over 80,000 students, 8,000 staff members, and more than 800,000 meters of real estate assets. Moving on Tyson Barker is rejoining the Atlantic Council as a nonresident senior fellow at the Europe Center with a focus on U.S.-EU relations, tech policy, geoeconomics, and Ukraine. Allie Burns is stepping down as CEO of Village Capital — which supports impact-driven, seed-stage startups — by the end of 2025. Rebecca Brown will be the new president and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law. Most recently, she served as vice president of global advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Rowlands Kaotcha will become president and CEO of the international NGO The Hunger Project. Kaotcha has served in various regional and global leadership roles for THP for over 23 years, most recently as the chief program officer. Dr. Ebere Okereke — a veteran of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Africa CDC — is the new chair of the board of directors of PSI Europe. Dr. Onikepe Owolabi will be the vice president for international research at the Guttmacher Institute. Njide Ndili will be the president of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria. Adam Phillips will be the first CEO of Interfaith America. Phillips directed interfaith mobilization at the ONE Campaign and most recently served in the Biden-Harris administration as executive director of local, faith, and transformative partnerships at USAID. U.S. Foreign Service Officer Markus Thomi is returning to the National Security Council as deputy senior director for Europe and Russia. Up next CSW69. The U.N.’s premier women’s rights forum, the Commission on the Status of Women, will kick off Monday with the adoption, hopefully, of a political declaration promoting a more vigorous observance of human rights and equality for women. The 11-day session — which marks the 30th anniversary of the World Conference on Women, or Beijing +30 — is playing out against a backdrop of growing pushback against those rights. In closed-door negotiations, the Trump administration has sought to eliminate language in the draft declaration urging states to expand opportunities for women as part of its broader anti-diversity campaign. Delegations are bracing for the possibility that the U.S., which is not a member of the commission, may use its influence behind the scenes to thwart the adoption of a declaration by consensus. “Women’s rights are under attack,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned in an address commemorating International Women’s Day. March 10-21.