Over the weekend, a small painting of a tombstone appeared outside the headquarters of what was once the world’s largest bilateral donor: the U.S. Agency for International Development. “RIP USAID,” the tombstone read. “1961-2025.”
However, according to Jim Richardson, the former director of the F Bureau — the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance — under the first Trump administration, it’s too early to say if USAID has truly reached its end.
“This is certainly not the end of foreign assistance, or foreign aid, from the U.S. government,” said Richardson, speaking at a Devex Pro event on Monday afternoon. “The courts are starting to weigh in, Congress hasn’t had its first hearing yet.”