From disaster relief to fighting world hunger, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was at the center of it all. But now, several medical researchers are issuing a chilling warning, saying millions of people around the world could die in the next five years because of the Trump administration’s cuts to humanitarian aid.
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the official end to USAID. Some programs were absorbed into the State Department, but the majority were cancelled over alleged wasteful spending.
With the Trump administration cutting foreign aid workers, many employees had just 15 minutes to clean out their desks back in February. Now, four months later, some humanitarian experts are sounding the alarm about what the cuts could mean for people in need.
“Honestly, it’s heartbreaking. I think all of us in the sector are walking around feeling nauseous,” Katherine Williford, chief development officer of Plan International USA, which supports girls’ rights around the world.
They lost about $38 million in USAID funding and have already had to cancel some of their projects. They’re scrambling to find donors so they can continue their work.
“Helping keep girls in school and out of early child marriage,” Williford said. “Really devastating to see what can happen there.”
“We know that when girls in developing nations get access to education, their communities thrive, their economies thrive,” she said.
This week, a new report from the Lancet medical journal estimates the USAID cuts could cause 14 million deaths over the next five years.
The cuts have led to the closure of food kitchens and health clinics, as well as a halt in shipments of medication, water purification tablets and nutritional packets for starving children.
Rubio posted Tuesday on the online platform Substack: “The charity-based model failed because the leadership of these developing nations developed an addiction.”
“Americans should not pay taxes to fund failed governments in faraway lands,” he said.
A former USAID contractor, who asked that News4 not share her name for fear of retaliation, said she disagrees.
“Doing these programs, it’s not charity,” she said. “It’s building relationships with people in other countries. And they strengthen American security, something that this administration claims to care about.”
Researchers at the Lancet say they believe children will be the ones most affected by the USAID cuts.
Rubio also wrote in his Substack post Tuesday, “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.”