Secretary Marco Rubio released a statement on the US government's future foreign aid efforts as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) closes.
USAID administered over $715 billion in relief efforts throughout its existence.
Aid provided included food, healthcare, and shelter services.
Conservative lawmakers, however, have increasingly criticized USAID for allegedly manipulating its foreign aid efforts to further progressive policies.
Sundry evidence of USAID allocating millions of dollars to inherently politically progressive projects worldwide broadened such criticism.
Consequently, USAID was shuttered upon President Donald Trump’s inauguration, with its official closing date being July 1st, 2025.
The State Department will henceforth administer and direct all of the US’s foreign assistance programs.
Secretary Rubio welcomed USAID’s closure as an opportunity to re-focus the US’s foreign aid programs.
Stating that USAID lost mission focus by championing progressive policies, Rubio argued that new foreign aid initiatives will be leveraged to support US interests abroad.
“Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests,” stated Rubio.
Among these, explained Rubio, will be abandoning USAID’s former “charity-based model” for investments that empower countries to independently and sustainably grow.
Rubio also described how aid will be "targeted and time limited” and contingent on recipients demonstrating “both the ability and willingness to help themselves.”
The State Department will carefully scrutinize the US’s foreign aid efforts vis-a-vis optimizing benefits for Americans.
“Recipients deserve to know the assistance provided to them is not a handout from an unknown NGO, but an investment from the American people,” continued Rubio.
Such an approach, alleged Rubio, will help aid-receiving countries emerge from their precarious economic straits and further US interests.
“For Americans and many around the world, July 1st will mark the beginning of a new era of global partnership, peace, investment, and prosperity,” concluded Rubio.
