Foreign Policy published on 16 December 2025 an article titled "The Trump Administration's Epochal Shift on Foreign Aid" by Deborah Kaliel and Phillip Palmer, both former USAID officials.
The Trump administration abolished the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and shifted its remnants into a State Department that was and still is inadequately staffed to handle the new responsibilities.
Comment: It should have come as a surprise to no one that the State Department was ill-prepared to add responsibility for running what is left of American foreign aid programs, especially following sharp reductions in State Department staffing. While USAID operated in missions overseas closely affiliated with the US embassy, all of the USAID offices closed at the demand of Elon Musk and DOGE. State Department personnel, unfamiliar with USAID programs, were expected to pick up the pieces. This was obviously not going to work, and US foreign policy is now paying a steep price for this mistake.
