Specialists say Trump administration’s order to halt overseas help will ‘price many, many lives’.
The top of the United Nations has expressed concern about President Donald Trump’s choice to pause overseas help from the US as his administration promotes its “America First” agenda.
Throughout a information convention on Monday, a spokesman for Antonio Guterres mentioned the UN secretary-general had famous the coverage change “with concern”.
“He calls for extra exemptions to be thought of to make sure the continued supply of vital improvement and humanitarian actions for probably the most weak communities around the globe,” Stephane Dujarric informed reporters.
“These lives and livelihoods rely on this assist,” mentioned Dujarric, including that the US is “one of many largest assist suppliers” on the earth.
“We’re at present mapping out what [the Trump administration’s decision] means and the influence that it might have.”
Trump signed an executive order shortly after he was sworn in for a second time period on January 20, ordering all federal authorities businesses to enact a 90-day pause on overseas improvement help and to evaluation current programmes.
“It’s the coverage of United States that no additional United States overseas help shall be disbursed in a way that’s not absolutely aligned with the overseas coverage of the President of the US,” the order reads.
Days later, the US State Division said in a memo that it was suspending virtually all new funding for overseas assist programmes with exceptions for the nation’s prime Center East allies, Israel and Egypt.
The order on Friday additionally included an exemption for emergency meals help and associated bills.
“President Trump said clearly that the US is not going to blindly dole out cash with no return for the American individuals,” the division mentioned in a statement on Sunday defending the measures.
The assertion additionally affirmed newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assist for the Trump-led coverage.
“Reviewing and realigning overseas help on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not only the best factor to do, it’s a ethical crucial. The Secretary is proud to guard America’s funding with a deliberate and considered evaluation of how we spend overseas help {dollars} abroad.”
However specialists have slammed the Trump administration’s choice, saying it is going to have disastrous penalties for individuals around the globe.
A worldwide stop-work order on overseas assist will price many, many lives if stored in place.As written, it halts ALL ongoing humanitarian reduction actions, besides meals assist, in locations like Syria, Sudan, Gaza.Additionally halts all world well being applications.What this can imply in human phrases:🧵t.co/1nCjZFfBdS
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@jeremykonyndyk.bsky.social) 2025-01-25T03:33:26.842Z
Michael Schiffer, who served because the assistant administrator of the US Company for Worldwide Improvement’s (USAID) Asia bureau from 2022 to 2025, mentioned stopping overseas assist — even briefly — can have “apparent, predictable outcomes”.
“Youngsters will die. Our nationwide safety will erode. America’s alliances will undergo. US companions shall be in danger. And America’s enemies will rejoice,” Schiffer warned in a column for the web site Simply Safety.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees Worldwide and an ex-USAID official below former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, additionally mentioned “a world stop-work order on overseas assist will price many, many lives if stored in place”.
Konyndyk famous that US overseas help goes to addressing famine in Sudan, supporting refugees in Africa and Asia, and funding HIV/AIDS therapy programmes around the globe.
“It’s no exaggeration in anyway to say that following by way of on this coverage will kill lots of people,” he wrote on social media.
“It is going to additionally shred US world credibility in a lot of the world, the place our help applications are an enormous share of our nation partnerships.”
