‘The effort will balance genuine humanitarian relief with the need to use taxpayer dollars wisely to advance American interests at home and abroad,’ internal memo says
President Donald Trump’s State Department completed its review of U.S. foreign aid, identifying nearly 15,000 grants worth $60 billion for elimination, an internal memo reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon shows.
The review pertained to foreign aid that flowed from both the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Within the State Department, auditors reviewed more than 9,100 grants worth an estimated $15.9 billion. It identified 4,100 of those grants worth $4.4 billion for elimination.
The lion’s share of the grants identified for elimination, then, came from the USAID side, where Trump administration officials moved to slash 5,800 grants valued at $54 billion. That marks a 92 percent reduction in USAID’s multi-year grant spending, according to the State Department memo.
The “exhaustive review” reflects the monumental changes underway at USAID under Trump. MORE