The United States, the largest donor in the world, froze practically all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for emergency food and military funds for Israel and Egypt.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sent an internal memorandum days after President Donald Trump assumed the position of promising a policy of “first America” of restriction of assistance closely abroad.
“No new funds will be obliged by new prizes or extensions of existing awards until each new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” the memorandum to the staff seen by AFP.
The sweeping order seems to affect everything from development assistance to military aid, even Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in arms under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, while trying to repel a Russian invasion.
The directive also means a pause of at least several months of American funds to Pepfar, the anti-VIH/AIDS initiative that buys antiretroviral drugs to treat the disease in developing countries, largely in Africa.
Run under President George W. Bush in 2003, he is attributed to Pepfar to save about 26 million lives and until recently they enjoyed broad popular support along partisan lines in Washington.
But the memorandum explicitly made exceptions for military assistance to Israel, whose main weapons packages of the United States have expanded even more since the Tel Aviv military offensive in Gaza, and Egypt, which has received a generous defense financing of the defense of the defense of the defense of the United States since signed a peace treaty with Israel with Israel in 1979.
Rubio also made an exception for the contributions of the United States to emergency food assistance, which the United States has been contributing after crises worldwide, even in Sudan and Syria.
The legislators of the rival Democratic Party said that more than 20 million people trusted the medicines through Pepfar and 63 million people in the antimalant efforts financed by the United States, including networks.
“For years, Republicans in Congress have denounced what they see as a lack of American credibility in front of countries such as China, Russia and Iran,” said representative Gregory Meeks, the main democrat in the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber and Representative Lois Frankel.
“Now our credibility is at stake, and it seems that we will cut and flee from US commitments to our partners around the world,” they wrote in a letter.
Washington has long taken the help as a tool for its foreign policy, saying that it cares about the development and contrast with China, which is mainly concerned with looking for natural resources.
Meeks and Frankel also pointed out that the Congress appropriate by Congress and said they would seek its implementation.
The United States Senate confirms the former Fox News coanfrerion as head of the Pentagon
The United States Senate confirmed by little the former Fox News Coanfrerion Pete Hegesh as head of the Pentagon on Friday, despite the accusations of alcohol abuse, inappropriate sexual behavior and other fears about its ability to lead the most powerful army in the world.
Three Republican senators voted against the Trump National Team as Secretary of Defense, which resulted in a 50-50 draw that required that JD Vance issued the decisive vote, only the second time in history that a vice president has had to intervene To save a cabinet nominee.
The result of the edge of the shave stressed the concerns about Hegseth, who will take care of the pentagon with the war in Ukraine, the volatile half east despite the cessation of students in Lebanon and Gaza, already measure that Trump expands the role of The military in security at the border between the United States and Mexico.
The 44 -year -old man is a former officer of the National Guard of the Army who until recently worked as a co -el Fox News – One of Trump’s favorite television channels. Hegseth has a combative personality of the media, fierce loyalty and telegenic appearance: common stamps in Trump’s entourage.
Supporters say that Hegseth deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq give him the idea of directing the defense department better than the most experienced officials who would normally be considered for work.
He has pledged to focus on the military on “lethality” and bring back the “warrior culture” to the Pentagon.
When confirming it, the Republicans set aside their lack of experience leading an organization near the size of the defense department: the largest employer in the country with about three million people.
They also approved Hegseth despite the accusations of bad financial management in non -profit organizations of veterans where he worked previously, excessive consumption reports and accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.
When asked during his confirmation hearing last week about the criticism he has faced, Hegseth said there was a “coordinated smear campaign” against him, and that “he is not a perfect person, but redemption is real.”
Trump has supported him, telling journalists on Friday: “Pete is a very, very good man.”
But three Republicans, Senators Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski, were not convinced and voted against them.
Murkowski said in X the day before the vote on Friday that “the past behaviors that Mr. Heghseth has admitted, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrates a lack of judgment that is improper of someone who would lead our armed forces” .
Before their complete Senate approval, legislators received an affidavit of the former hegesh sister -in -law, Danielle Hegseth, who joined the accusations against him.
“I think Hegseth has a problem of alcohol abuse and was abusive to his ex -wife Samantha,” said the affidavit, although he pointed out that Danielle Hegseth was not personally witnessed by physical or sexual abuse by the Secretary of International Defense.
However, Danielle Hegseth said that “he personally observed … the erratic and aggressive behavior of Hegseth for many years”, that he underwent emotional abuse by him, and that his ex -wife told him that he once hid from him in a cabinet because she “feared for her personal safety.”
According to the affidavit, Hegesh also told his former sister that women should not work or have the right to vote, and said that “Christians needed to have more children to be able to overcome the Muslim population.”
During his combative confirmation hearing, Hegseth attached to his opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, for a long time for Republicans, saying that they are “dividing the troops into the formations, which makes the commanders walk on Egg shells, without putting the meritocracy first. “
But he sought to soften the past comments that oppose the women who serve in combat, telling legislators that “women will have access to land combat roles … given the standards they remain high.”
Three more Trump nominees will soon be interrogated by legislators.
Kash Patel – Trump’s candidate to lead the FBI – Tulsi Gabbard, his election for the director of National Intelligence, and Robert F Kennedy JR, the election of the President for Secretary of Health and Human Services, have Senate audiences next week.
‘Consequences of life or death’
The memorandum allows the State Department to make other case exceptions by case and temporarily to finance salaries to staff and other administrative expenses.
The memo requested an internal review of all foreign assistance within 85 days.
By justifying the freezing, Rubio, who as a senator was in favor of development assistance, wrote that it was impossible for the new administration to evaluate whether existing foreign aid commitments “are not duplicated, are effective and consistent with the foreign policy of the president Trump “
The United States has long been the main donor of the world in terms of dollars, although several European nations, especially in Scandinavia, give significantly more as a percentage of their economies.
The United States granted more than $ 64 billion in development assistance abroad in 2023, the last year for which records were available, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises industrialized countries.
Trump had already assumed the position on Monday signed an executive order that suspended foreign assistance for 90 days, but it was not clear how it would be implemented.
The Oxfam anti-Pobreza group said Trump was leaving a long-standing consensus in the United States for foreign assistance.
“Humanitarian and development assistance represents only around one percent of the federal budget; Save lives, fight against diseases, educate millions of children and reduce poverty, ”said Oxfam America President Abby Maxman, in a statement.
“Suspend and finally cut many of these programs could have consequences of life or death for innumerable children and families who live through the crisis,” he said.
“This is madness” Reuters He quoted Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who is now president of Refugees International, as he said.
“This will kill people. I mean, if it is implemented as written in that cable […] Many people will die.
“There is no way to consider this as an attempt in good faith to sincerely review the effectiveness of foreign assistance programming. This is simply a demolition ball to break as much things as possible, ”said Konyndyk.
Konyndyk said that emergency food assistance was only a minority of all humanitarian assistance, and added that nutrition, health and vaccination programs will have to stop, as well as the help of helping Gaza and Syria, as well as services to refugee camps in Sudan.
An official of the International Development Agency (USAID) official of the United States, who requested anonymity, said that officials responsible for the projects in Ukraine have been told to stop all work, Reuters reported.
Among the projects that have frozen are support for schools and health assistance, such as emergency maternal care and children’s vaccines, said the official.
“It is a chaos manufactured,” said a former USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Additional Reuters
