USAID was rotten, but Trump needs the soft power of foreign aid done right

By abruptly shuttering the US Agency for International Development (USAID) only a fortnight after returning to Washington, President Trump is signaling that he will bring accountability and efficiency to foreign aid.In an ideal world, USAID strengthens US influence through soft power.At just over $40 billion, USAID’s annual budget is a small fraction of the Department of Defense’s annual allocation of nearly $900 billion.This relatively small investment is intended to help save billions more in US hard power, yielding a high return on investment for taxpayers.In principle, the agency’s efforts to advance democracy and prevent wars are laudable.

Developing countries benefit from agricultural technologies, inoculation against disease, and educational development.But, as is so often the case with social development projects, fringe political ideologies were imposed on USAID’s work by the government employees and consultants.The agency’s funding was corrupted with grants going to radical causes and organizations.Perhaps the best illustration of how USAID has misused its funding is found in the Middle East.In 2024, as the region reeled from the aftermath of the bestial atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel the previous year, the United States significantly boosted its financial support for projects in Gaza and the West Bank, spending more than $200 million of American taxpayers’ money in territories already rife with terrorist incitement and activity.The respected Israeli research organization NGO Monitor pointed out that as the US government “dramatically increased funding” for these various projects, it “drastically decreased transparency.”These grants were made to what USAID called “miscellaneous foreign awardees.” You wouldn’t know from the opaque accounting process that beneficiaries included local partners who praised the October 7 onslaught.A “flash appeal” issued by the United Nations for assistance in Gaza attracted $114 million ...