Trump pushes deeper foreign aid cuts, raising risk of government shutdown

Trump moves to slash foreign aid, heightening shutdown risk

US President Donald Trump has proposed cutting nearly $5 billion in congressionally-approved foreign aid, the White House announced Friday — a move that could trigger a government shutdown as Democrats push back.

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Trump outlined $4.9 billion in reductions targeting programs under the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“The president will always put AMERICA FIRST,” the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote on social media while releasing the letter.

Democrats warned that reversing already-approved funding would derail budget negotiations needed to prevent a shutdown later this year. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s tactic — a rarely used maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” — unlawful.

“It’s clear neither Trump nor Congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and completely unnecessary shutdown,” Schumer said.

Even some moderate Republicans voiced concerns about halting spending that Congress had already signed off on.

A senior White House official, however, insisted the administration had “a solid legal basis” for the move and predicted any court challenge would fail.

USAID dismantled

Since taking office, Trump has steadily dismantled USAID, the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency. Founded in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy to expand US influence in the developing world during the Cold War, the agency was later folded into the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio cut 85 percent of its programs.

Rubio praised Trump’s latest action as part of an effort to “root out fraud, waste, and abuse from the US government, saving American workers billions of dollars.”

According to court documents reviewed by AFP, $3.2 billion of the proposed cuts would come from USAID, confirming an earlier New York Post report.

A study in The Lancet published in June estimated that the previous round of USAID cuts could result in more than 14 million preventable deaths worldwide, one-third of them children.

Also slated for reductions is $838 million in funding for international peacekeeping missions.

“This is going to make our budget or liquidity situation that much more difficult,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.

Shutdown looming

After returning to office in January, Trump launched a sweeping campaign to shrink or eliminate wide sections of the federal government.

Although Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, they still need Democratic votes in the Senate to approve new spending. By clawing back $4.9 billion late in the fiscal year, Trump aims to limit Congress’s time to act before the funds expire next month.

The US narrowly avoided a shutdown in March, with a last-minute deal. Such shutdowns are rare but highly disruptive, halting services like food inspections, closing national parks and monuments, and putting as many as 900,000 federal workers on unpaid leave. Another million essential employees — including air traffic controllers and police — would be required to work without pay until government funding is restored.