A flurry of new directives from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the past week has left many staff at the United States Agency for International Development, as well those at its partner organizations, dumbfounded about what will happen next.
Central to this upheaval is a 90-day pause in disbursements of foreign aid that Trump issued on his first day in office. This was followed by the U.S. State Department issuing a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts and an immediate pause on new foreign aid spending.
USAID then sent staff a series of memos outlining how the agency will implement Trump’s vision of an “America First” foreign policy, which includes every program being “thoroughly scrutinized.”
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About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
