Trump Admin Ends Majority of USAID Contracts, State Department Grants

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting administrator for USAID, has said that the agency will likely face reorganization.

A flag flies outside the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Trump administration says it is eliminating more than 90 percent of foreign aid contracts and grants with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

In all, the administration stated that it would eliminate 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, for a cut of $54 billion. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were being eliminated, for a cut of $4.4 billion.

The move to axe funding is part of President Donald Trump’s wider efforts to weed out government waste and fraud.

USAID has been one of the first targets of the new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory panel led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The latest cutoff has created panic among the nonprofit organizations and businesses that launched legal action against the Trump administration. They argued that the funding freeze breaks federal law and has shut down life-saving programs around the world.

Court documents show that the Trump administration was handed a win on Feb. 26 when the Supreme Court allowed a freeze on foreign funding to continue.

This follows the government’s appeal of a ruling by a lower court that gave the Trump administration a Feb. 13 deadline to pay nearly $2 billion dollars for reimbursements on foreign aid-related contracts and grants for “work completed prior” to that date.

That deadline was unfeasible, the administration argued, and the order threatened to require the government to release federal funds “without confirming that those payments are for legitimate expenses,” the documents state.

According to the agency’s official website, USAID extends assistance to countries that are recovering from disasters, attempting to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.

The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a group that represents major U.S. and global businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and former officials, said it was shocked by the latest efforts to target USAID.

“The American people deserve a transparent accounting of what will be lost—on counterterror, global health, food security, and competition,” it said in a statement published on the social media platform X.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting administrator for USAID, has suggested that the agency will likely face reorganization.

“[The agency] has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio said in a statement.

Earlier this month, DOGE began to zero in on USAID, finding that the agency had spent $42 billion in fiscal year 2023.

The Trump administration has placed USAID workers worldwide on leave and fired 1,600 U.S.-based staffers.

“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” reads the notification sent to USAID workers.

From NTD News