Eighty-three percent of the programs directly funded and administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were canceled Monday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio took to social media to announce the latest step in the Trump administration’s efforts to cleanse the deep state from government institutions.
The decision came after a six week review of the programs, Rubio set out, citing their funding as antithetical to the core interests of the United States:
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2025
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
In…
The Trump administration last month placed USAID direct-hire staffers around the world on leave except those deemed essential while others were fired or placed on “administrative leave,” as Breitbart News reported.
Employees were also notified that USAID “was beginning a reduction in force that would eliminate 2,000 U.S.-based jobs,” however this was later changed in another notice to 1,600 employees reportedly having their jobs affected.
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Now the results of that review have been delivered.
The layoffs of thousands of employees from USAID come after a Trump-appointed judge ruled that if the Trump administration “deems it necessary to place thousands of workers on leave in order to review U.S.-backed foreign assistance,” they are allowed to do that.
