WASHINGTON — U.S.-funded aid programs around the world were firing staff and shutting down or preparing to stop operations, as the Trump administration’s unprecedented freeze on almost all foreign assistance brought their work to a sudden halt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who initially exempted only emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt from the aid pause, agreed Tuesday to at least temporarily keep spending money on humanitarian programs that provide life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance, according to a copy of a signed waiver obtained by The Associated Press. While some in the aid community expressed hope Rubio’s move would rescue more of the programs that keep alive refugees, the gravely ill and others around the world, U.S.-funded operations of all kinds stepped up the pace of layoffs, furloughs and program shutdowns.
President Donald Trump ordered the 90-day freeze last week to give the administration time to review which of the thousands of humanitarian, development and security programs will keep getting money from the U.S.
Trump also paused federal grants and loans inside the United States, but a judge temporarily blocked that effort Tuesday.
Here’s a look at the foreign funding freeze and how it had starting hitting programs worldwide:
The United States is the world’s largest source of foreign assistance by far, although other countries give a bigger share of their budgets. It provides 4 out of every 10 dollars donated for humanitarian aid.
“The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, one of the few aid officials willing to speak publicly about the impact of the freeze following Trump administration warnings not to.
The Trump administration placed more than 50 senior officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave Monday as many were helping organizations deal with the freeze. USAID’s acting head said he was investigating whether the officials were resisting Trump’s orders.
U.S. policy for decades has been that aid given abroad pays for itself through greater national security, by stabilizing regions and economies and improving relations with partners.
But many Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers believe much foreign assistance is money that should be spent or saved at home.
For every program, “we’ll expect the State Department to defend, repent, or in some cases, make the case for continuation of their programs,” said Rep. Brian Mast, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the U.S. freeze doesn’t affect vital American support to his military as it fights invading Russian forces. That’s mostly true.
The only military aid the State Department is responsible for and thus is covered by the pause is foreign military financing and international military education and training. There are other baskets for U.N. peacekeeping operations and demining programs.
Most of Ukraine’s military aid, however, has come from the Pentagon. That includes a program drawing from existing arms stocks and another called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is used to pay for weapons contracts that would not be delivered for a year or more.
Neither of the Defense Department programs is directly affected by the freeze, although U.S. officials say there is nothing in the pipeline either.
But civilian programs vital to Ukraine’s war effort do come from the State Department. There’s no word of exemptions for them. That includes salary support that the U.S. provides to keep Ukraine’s government running despite the war’s damage to the economy.
That support is important, said Bradley Bowman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “But I think if our European allies are reading the political moment in the United States well, they better be moving, I say quickly, to try to pick up most or all of that burden.”
The U.S. has sent stop-work orders to wartime civilian programs it supports in Ukraine.
That includes Veteran Hub, a nonprofit that runs a crisis hotline getting up to 1,300 calls a month from Ukrainian veterans who need social and psychological support.
Getting the stop-work order this weekend, Ivona Kostyna, the nonprofit’s leader, realized she could soon lose half of her trained staff of 31.
“If we had a month, say, warning, even two-week warning, it would have been a lot easier on us,” she said. “We could have managed to somehow secure ourselves for this time. But there just wasn’t any warning.”
Days before the U.S. freeze, Veteran Hub received a call from someone on the verge of hurting themselves, Kostyna said. A hotline staffer texted the person through the night.
“And now what we have is a line that isn’t working and basically no answer, which is terrifying for us,” she said.
In the southern African nation of Zimbabwe, Gumisayi Bonzo, director of a health nonprofit, worried for her organization — and for herself.
Zimbabwe is one of the few African countries to achieve a milestone in HIV/AIDS diagnosis, treatment and suppression of viral load. That’s thanks in large part to a groundbreaking HIV program created by Republican President George W. Bush, credited with saving more than 20 million lives.
The program — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — has been targeted by Republican hardliners. Bonzo had yet to hear word of a funding cutoff for her group, Trans Smart Trust, which promotes health services for bisexual and transgender people in a country where discrimination and stigma discourage many to seek treatment.
“Everyone is just confused right now,” Bonzo said.
The 54-year-old has been taking HIV treatment for 23 years thanks to PEPFAR support that made medication affordable.
“I have been religiously taking medicines for over two decades, I am living a normal life again, and suddenly we have to stop,” she said. “That’s a death sentence for many people.”
Rubio’s waiver does not cover programs that deal with abortion, family planning, conferences or anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion or gender reassignment.
Gyude Moore, a former Cabinet minister in Liberia who is now a fellow at the U.S.-based Center for Global Development, said the U.S. freeze would hurt lives around Africa.
U.S. support helped West Africa recover from years of vicious wars. Money from USAID helped pay for school lunches, supported girls’ education, strengthened health systems and helps small farmers.
Moore, as many colleagues did, called the sudden cutoff “cruel.”
“There is no wiggle room,” he said.
Abandoning this assistance hurts the U.S., because “it makes no distinction between ally, partner and adversary,” he added.
And U.S. rival China will be happy to move into areas of Africa to build its influence and business contracts in resource-rich countries, Moore and other analysts say.
“Feeding hungry children in Liberia or malnourished children in Kenya, providing life-saving anti-retroviral drugs in Uganda — none of these things undermine American interests,” Moore said.
The U.S. also has tried to raise its profile in the South Pacific to counter China’s influence, including by bolstering USAID spending to nations that are among the most dependent on development finance.
During visits to the Pacific in 2024, officials announced more than $15 million in new spending, to boost natural disaster resilience, support economic growth, help countries withstand the ruinous effects of climate change, and more.
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Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. AP reporters Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand and Tara Copp in Washington contributed.