Trump seeks to cut $5bn in congressionally approved foreign aid

Donald Trump, president of the United States, has proposed to reduce another $5 billion in federal aid that has already been approved by Congress.

Trump’s latest move is to revoke US funding for humanitarian projects and international organizations. Additionally, it is Trump’s most recent attempt to exercise his presidential authority.

Trump previously obtained congressional approval to revoke $ 9 billion in foreign aid and funding for the media through legislation passed in July, but the most recent move attempts to use an obscure tactic to completely bypass the legislative branch.

Congress has the authority to regulate federal spending under the US Constitution. Trump, however, informed House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that he intended to withhold the $4. 9 billion in foreign spending from him in a letter that was posted online late on Thursday.

Trump would use a law that allows him to pause the spending for 45 days to implement the “pocket rescission.” The funding would then expire after the fiscal year ended on September 30.

The tactic was last used more than 50 years ago, according to the White House.

The funds were designated for foreign aid, UN peacekeeping missions, and so-called “democracy promotion” efforts overseas, according to a court document filed on Friday.

Under US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump has largely dismantled and reorganized the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was supposed to oversee the majority of it.

Triage of the human race

The United Nations and other aid organizations have been receiving increasingly strong warnings about the disastrous effects of US cuts.

The UN announced extensive program reductions in June as part of what the humanitarian office called “the biggest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector.”

The humanitarian community has been “forced into a triage of human survival,” according to UN aid chief Tom Fletcher at the time. The UN also predicted a rise in HIV/AIDS deaths by 2029 as a result of the funding withdrawals in July.

Regions all over the world, particularly those in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, have experienced the most severe knock-on effects.

At least 652 malnourished children&nbsp died at its facilities in northern Nigeria in the first half of 2025 due to a lack of timely care, according to a report from Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French name MSF.

Save the Children earlier this week issued a warning that RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food) shortages in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan were expected over the next three months.

At least one Republican lawmaker has criticized Trump’s action as an unlawful overreach of the presidency.