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First Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- First Post
Trump orders full scale cut of USAID's overseas workforce
US State Secretary Marco Rubio directed the suspension of the agency's entire international workforce. The responsibilities of foreign assistance programs will now be transferred to the department read more US President Donald Trump has ordered the slashing of all USAID overseas positions by the end of September, in a move that will dramatically restructure the country's remaining foreign aid operations. The Guardian obtained the cable of the order issued by the State Department, where Marco Rubio directed the suspension of the agency's entire international workforce. The responsibilities of foreign assistance programs will now be transferred to the department. 'The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,' the order read, adding that the transfer will take effect on June 15. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD How will it affect aid? The directive impacts hundreds of USAID employees worldwide, including foreign service officers, contractors, and locally hired staff in over 100 countries. US embassy chiefs of mission have been instructed to prepare for these extensive changes to take effect within four months. The layoffs at USAID were brought in by the Department of Government Efficiency's (Doge) former chief, Elon Musk, who eliminated 86 per cent of USAID's programs in just six weeks after Trump took office. Internal documents reveal that senior agency officials warned Senator Rubio about the potentially devastating consequences of the cuts, including leaving 1 million children without treatment for malnutrition, causing up to 160,000 malaria-related deaths, and resulting in 200,000 additional cases of childhood paralysis from polio over the next ten years if the reductions were carried out. 'Devastating' Last month, in an ironic turn of events, Trump said that his administration's cuts to the US Agency for International Development and its aid programs worldwide have been 'devastating.' Speaking beside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House visit, Trump was asked about his cutting most foreign aid by a reporter who said the decision had significant impacts in Africa. 'It's devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,' Trump said in the Oval Office. With inputs from agencies
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Plans to Slash All USAID International Positions
The Trump administration is planning on cutting all of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) international positions by the end of September, and transferring control to the State Department. According to a State Department cable obtained by The Guardian Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered that USAID's entire overseas workforce be eliminated, granting the State Department 'responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID' starting on June 15. 'The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,' the cable said. The move would affect thousands of USAID staff members, such as contractors, foreign service officers, and employed personnel, across over 100 countries. The Guardian reported that chiefs of mission at U.S. embassies were told to prepare themselves for the cuts and changes that would go into effect over the next four months. The administration has already cut around 90 percent of USAID's foreign aid contracts during Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rampage back in February. Musk, who has previously called the agency a 'criminal organization' and that it was 'time for it to die,' also spearheaded a near total wipe-out of its 10,000 strong work-force, reducing it to only 294 employees in March. At the time, former USAID administrator J. Brian Atwood warned that 'a lot of people will not survive' the administration's devastating decision. According to The Guardian, internal documents revealed that several other USAID senior officials also warned Rubio against the drastic cuts, emphasizing the devastating impacts they would have over the next decade if implemented. USAID has been on the president's radar ever since his return to office. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back as president which placed a 90-day pause on U.S. foreign development assistance for 'assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.' Two weeks later, a state department press release revealed that in an 'interim step toward gaining control and better understanding' over USAID's activity, Trump would be appointing Rubio as acting administrator of the agency. The president claimed that the agency was 'run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out,' and that once USAID was gutted, then the administration would be able to 'make a decision' on its future. The State Department doubled down on the president's sentiment in its press release, alleging that USAID had 'long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad,' and that it was now 'abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States.' In a speech announcing his new position, Rubio also admonished the agency for their 'ridiculous' behavior. 'Everything they do has to be aligned with U.S. foreign policy,' he said. 'And the attitude that USAID has adopted over the years is no, we are independent of the national interest.' 'There are things that [USAID] does that are good and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about,' Rubio added. Nicholas Enrich, USAID's former acting assistant administrator for global health, said in a series of staff memos obtained by the press in late February that pausing the agency's lifesaving programs would 'no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale.' He stated that if the cutbacks were not restored, then each year 1 million starving children would not have access to food, 28,000 people will suffer from infectious diseases like Ebola, and hundreds of millions of people will suffer from polio infections over the next decade, with 200,000 more people becoming paralyzed by polio, among other impacts. Enrich said he was placed on leave minutes after sending out his memos, though a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the agency had already decided to place him on leave days earlier. According to NPR, USAID's website went dark on Feb. 1, and its X account was also wiped. Now, the website only has a 'Notification of Administrative Leave' statement which was released on Feb. 23.
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
US Secretary of State Rubio terminates all USAID positions abroad: Report
By the end of September, there will be no such thing as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The Guardian reported on Monday, because all of its overseas staff will be terminated. Many, if not most, are local hires who have depended on a USAID salary for years and sometimes decades to support their families. The Guardian attributed the revelation to a State Department cable that it had obtained. It said the chiefs of mission at embassies in more than 100 countries have been notified that a significant overhaul is coming. 'The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,' the cable said. The State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio 'will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID' from 15 June, it added. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In early March, Rubio said that US President Donald Trump's purge of the six-decade-old USAID was complete and that 5,200 of its 6,200 programmes had been eliminated. The remaining programmes, he said, would now be administered 'more effectively' under the State Department and in consultation with Congress. The axing of the aid agency was an initiative from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, which aimed to save Washington billions in what it believed was unnecessary spending. Among its earliest finds was what the administration described as $50worth of condoms sent by the US "to Hamas". It was then revealed that it was a programme to prevent sexually transmitted diseases in the rural province of Gaza, Mozambique. Musk departed the administration two weeks ago. Since the Trump administration announced an immediate suspension of all foreign assistance, blocking ongoing aid programmes and freezing new funding, humanitarian workers around the world have been trying to work out exactly what this means for the millions of vulnerable people they are trying to keep alive. Middle East Eye reported on the impact of the initial USAID cuts on 1.8 million Sudanese experiencing famine. Food boxes sent by the US were rotting in warehouses because the agency no longer provided the money needed for the actual distribution. Since 1946, the Middle East and North Africa have been the biggest recipients of US financial assistance. Between April 2023 and April 2024, Congress appropriated around $9bn for the region. While most of the aid went towards military assistance, a fraction was funnelled into democracy programmes via USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-autonomous agency funded largely by the US Congress. MEE reported in May of this year that the Trump cuts to USAID have already impacted human rights defenders in the region who were reliant on the small grants to relocate and resettle abroad. Although modest in scope, the money provided a lifeline for exiled human rights activists.
