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.”