Trump seeks to cut $5bn in congressionally approved foreign aid

White House seeks to tally retired the timepiece connected backing aft already slashing billions successful assistance successful determination decried arsenic overreach.

United States President Donald Trump has sought to chopped different $5bn successful foreign aid already approved by Congress.

The determination is the latest effort by Trump to gut the backing the US provides to humanitarian projects and planetary organisations. It is besides the latest effort to trial the limits of Trump’s statesmanlike power.

While Trump had previously obtained legislature support to cancel $9bn successful overseas assistance and nationalist media backing successful authorities passed successful July, the latest determination seeks to usage an obscure maneuver to bypass the legislative subdivision entirely.

Under the US Constitution, Congress controls national spending. But successful a missive posted online precocious Thursday, Trump notified House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that helium planned to unilaterally withhold the $4.9bn successful approved overseas spending.

The tactic, known arsenic a “pocket rescission”, would spot Trump invoke a instrumentality that allows him to intermission the spending for 45 days. That would, successful turn, instrumentality the backing beyond the extremity of the September 30 fiscal year, causing it to expire.

The White House has said the maneuver was past utilized successful 1977, much than 50 years ago.

A tribunal papers filed connected Friday said the wealth was earmarked for overseas aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations, and alleged “democracy promotion” efforts overseas.

Most of it was meant to beryllium overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Trump has largely dismantled and reorganised nether US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

‘Triage of quality survival’

The determination comes arsenic the United Nations and assistance organisations person progressively warned of the devastating fallout of US cuts.

In June, the United Nations announced sweeping programme shrinkages, amid what the humanitarian bureau described arsenic “the deepest backing cuts ever to deed the planetary humanitarian sector”.

At the time, UN assistance main Tom Fletcher said the cuts meant the humanitarian assemblage has been “forced into a triage of quality survival”. In July, the UN besides predicted a surge successful HIV/AIDS deaths by 2029 owed to the backing withdrawals.

The knock-on effects person been felt sharply successful regions crossed the world, peculiarly successful the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

In July, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, reported that astatine slightest 652 malnourished children had died astatine its facilities successful bluish Nigeria successful the archetypal fractional of 2025 owed to a deficiency of timely care.

Earlier this week, Save the Children warned that Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan were expected to tally retired of alleged “ready-to-use therapeutic food” (RUTF) implicit the adjacent 3 months.

Meanwhile, astatine slightest 1 Republican lawmaker has challenged Trump’s determination arsenic an amerciable overreach of statesmanlike power.

“Instead of this effort to undermine the law, the due mode is to place ways to trim excessive spending done the bipartisan, yearly appropriations process,” Senator Susan Collins said successful a statement.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies