HUGE: President Trump Considering Scaling Back USAID, Rolling Into State Dept.

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering scaling back the United States’ support for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and placing its remnants under the State Department, to be overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

As of this writing, no final decision has been made.

The Trump administration is considering scaling down the U.S. Agency for International Development and putting it under control of the State Department, two sources familiar with the discussions said on Friday, in a significant overhaul of how Washington allocates U.S. foreign aid worldwide.

The National Security Council (NSC) hosted discussions this week on the topic, a person familiar with the matter said. A U.S. official confirmed there have been discussions about such a move but said no final decisions have been made.

The Trump administration has said it is conducting a review to ensure the tens of billions of dollars worth of U.S. foreign assistance worldwide is aligned with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and not a waste of taxpayer money.

The White House is exploring legal authorities that U.S. President Donald Trump could use to issue an executive order to end USAID’s independence, one of the sources said. It was unclear whether Trump has the power to issue such an order and bypass Congress.

On X, one user posted a screenshot of USAID’s website, indicating that it was formed by executive order (EO) by President John F. Kennedy, and claiming that what one EP began, another can end. Now, it may not be that simple; President Kennedy’s presidency was over 60 years in the past, and it’s unclear if that original EO still stands alone. 

Part of the exploring that the Trump administration is doing doubtlessly involves determining whether Congress needs to act to shutter USAID.

Most Americans won’t understand how big this is. Cuts off the head of the snake of a rogue agency that spends your tax dollars on woke and wasteful global programs.

Many will say this is “unconstitutional.” It’s not.

Live by the executive order, die by the executive order. https://t.co/LwsXdgIeHr pic.twitter.com/Epw7oIZnMx

— William Wolfe 🇺🇸 (@William_E_Wolfe) February 1, 2025

Here’s the onion; as we might expect, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is involved:

The source added that officials from the newly established Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk were also involved in the conversations and frequented USAID headquarters in downtown Washington this week.

USAID and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department referred questions to USAID.

If USAID were put under the State Department, it would likely have dramatic consequences for global life-saving aid from the world’s largest single donor.

The lack of response to requests for comment is hardly surprising since there’s an ongoing evaluation of how this must be done. But cast your optics on that last sentence: The “…world’s largest single donor.”

See Related: 

The Resistance Attempts a Coup at USAID and It Doesn’t Go Well

The Biden Administration Quietly Spent $15 Mil to Distribute ‘Contraceptives and Condoms’ in Afghanistan

 Granted, the United States is the global heavyweight in many ways. We still have the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by a wide margin, efforts to the contrary by Democrats notwithstanding. We can do a lot of things smaller, less prosperous countries can’t. But that doesn’t mean we have to do this.

Not only is USAID paying for stupidity like sending condoms to the Taliban, along with all manner of money poured out overseas, but their 2025 budget request is asking for $42.8 billion. That’s a “B” followed by an “illion.” That’s a lot of American taxpayers’ dollars to let USAID play Santa Claus to the world. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, we can’t afford it. We’re broke. Our national debt situation is untenable, we may well be past the point of no return, and we can’t keep paying for things like condoms for terrorists anymore.

This is something that only the Trump administration could undertake; the president sure seems willing to take steps no traditional politician would, and this is one of those steps. The level of foreign aid we are shoveling overseas just can’t be kept up.

In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024. 

And if anyone doubts that U.S. foreign aid in general needs to be scaled back, I have 36 trillion compelling reasons to do precisely that.

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