Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that the Trump administration has completed its six-week overhaul of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting 82% of its programs and moving the remaining 18% under the State Department.
The historic rollback of U.S. foreign aid follows President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, which froze foreign assistance funding and initiated a sweeping review of development programs, many of which Trump and his allies deemed wasteful.
Rubio thanked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and State Department staff for carrying out the purge, which resulted in 5,200 out of 6,200 USAID programs being shut down.
Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, argue the mass closure of congressionally funded programs is illegal, as it lacks congressional approval. Lawsuits filed by nonprofits and contractors claim that terminated programs—ranging from epidemic control to famine prevention—stiffed aid groups of billions of dollars and left many overseas workers stranded.
Rubio did not specify which programs survived or how the State Department will manage foreign aid going forward.
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