The U.S. Department of State announced Tuesday they are undertaking efforts of “Making Foreign Aid Great Again” by shuttering the agency responsible for dishing out foreign aid.
The State Department halted the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) operations on Tuesday, according to a press release authored by Secretary Marco Rubio. Instead, the Department will undertake foreign assistance, with the goal of a unified American approach to foreign aid.
“As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and which advance American interests—will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency,” Rubio said in a prepared statement.
USAID, founded in 1961, often associated itself with Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations (UN), according to the press release. The agency came under intense fire from President Donald Trump’s administration, specifically over wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.
“That ends today, and where there was once a rainbow of unidentifiable logos on life-saving aid, there will now be one recognizable symbol: the American flag,” Rubio said in the press release. “Recipients deserve to know the assistance provided to them is not a handout from an unknown NGO, but an investment from the American people.”
This announcement was made as the State Department recently stopped shipping precision weapons and missile defense systems to Ukraine.
On Monday, the State Department revoked visas for a British rap group chanting “Death to the IDF.”
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