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2025-03-11 Government Corruption
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What will replace USAID?
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Text taken from a news article posted in vfokuse.mail.ru
[ColonelCassad] With Donald Trump's inauguration as US President, the White House began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In early February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was appointed Acting Administrator of the Agency — head of USAID. It was expected that its staff would be cut dozens of times. After six weeks of analysis, it turned out that 83% of USAID programs were subject to official closure, as they spent billions of dollars on goals that did not meet US interests. Military observer Alexander Hoffmann on what the Donald Trump Administration will replace the agency with especially for VFokus Mail.
This federal agency was one of the main recipients of funds allocated by the US Congress to counter the international influence and "soft power" of US adversaries, which the administration of the 46th US President Joe Biden included Russia, China and Iran. What will Washington's "soft power" be like under Trump and what could replace USAID?
PARADIGM SHIFT
Rubio promised that the fight against “hostile propaganda” would remain among the tasks of the US foreign policy, but under his presidency all American programs that lead to political censorship or create conditions for it would cease. According to him, the Biden administration’s actions to promote “soft power” were extremely unpopular abroad and created unnecessary friction with other countries.
The US Secretary of State said that the team of the previous American president put ideology above common sense, which led to a distorted understanding of the world. Rubio described the activities of USAID as suppression of free speech and disinformation. The Biden administration, in turn, called any point of view that does not correspond to the views and ideology of the US Democratic Party, especially abroad, “disinformation”.
Thus, Washington’s foreign policy under Trump, according to Rubio’s statements, abandons the approaches of the previous White House team in promoting “soft power”, focused on imposing the ideological guidelines of the American Democratic Party under the guise of “fighting disinformation”.
However, the Republican Trump administration, just as the Democrats did before, places ideological affinity and its ideological priorities at the forefront of the criteria for allocating funds from the US budget for international development programs.
IDEOLOGICAL ALLIES
The reorganization of US “soft power” abroad could lead to the redirection of American aid to countries whose leaders share the views of Trump’s ideological allies and supporters. Such aid includes not only USAID programs, but also Washington-sponsored initiatives of the UN and other international organizations.
Thus, the selection criterion for programs promoting “soft power” that receive US funding may be whether a foreign country’s policies are in line with Trumpists’ views on family values, or whether they oppose the principles of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), which the Biden administration has been promoting internationally.
Rubio recently appeared on the American Fox News channel with an ashen cross on his forehead, which Catholic believers wear throughout the first day of Lent according to their religious calendar. This caused a major stir in the world, but also widespread support among parishioners of the Roman Catholic Church.
It is likely that such a gesture by the top official responsible for US foreign policy is addressed to all conservative traditionalist Christians in the world, and not just American Catholics, which underlines the new ideological guidelines of the White House. To a certain extent, the ashen cross on Rubio’s forehead can also be attributed to the manifestation of Trumpists’ “soft power”.
| Or it’s just that Secretary Rubio is an observant Catholic and didn’t think anything more about it — no messaging involved. |
INVESTMENTS INSTEAD OF GRANTS
Changing Washington’s approaches to the use of “soft power”, reorganizing US foreign aid and restructuring USAID were indicated as future actions of the Trump administration in the latest “Mandate for Leadership” prepared by the American conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. “Mandate” is a set of recommendations for a presidential candidate or head of state elected by the Republican Party of the United States.
This instruction was called “Conservative Assurance” and is more widely known as “Project 2025”. The recommendations set out in the collection suggest a fundamental reorganization of the United States in all areas subject to the authority of the country’s president.
Thus, “Project 2025” proposed to deprive USAID of its status as an independent agency responsible for US foreign policy and subordinate the organization to the head of the US State Department. This was done by appointing Rubio as the acting administrator of USAID.
As for the Agency's prospects, here too the recommendations of "Project 2025" provide an understanding of the fate of USAID and Washington's "soft power". The collection proposes to assign tasks to private business to promote US interests abroad through development programs. In other words, to use investments from American companies instead of grants from the federal budget.
WALL STREET'S "SOFT POWER"
During Trump’s first term in office, the US government separated a number of divisions from USAID responsible for American investments in low- and middle-income countries. These divisions formed the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). By now, this federal agency already has a portfolio of investment projects worth over $50 billion.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was going to transfer tens of billions of dollars from the USAID budget to the DFC. The American president nominated Benjamin Black, the son of billionaire Wall Street investor Leon Black, as the corporation’s new CEO.
Even before he was invited to the position, Black Jr. himself called for the USAID budget to be redirected to the DFC in order to invest in business projects abroad instead of distributing grants. The new head of the DFC must be approved by the US Senate.
In addition, the Trump administration must receive permission from the US Congress to extend the development corporation’s mandate, which expires at the end of this year. The White House has already secured support from members of both parties in Congress to increase the DFC investment limit from $60 billion to $120 billion and empower corporations to invest in projects outside developing countries.
Thus, the Trump team has focused on “soft power” through the projection of economic power. The administration of the 47th US President intends to use investments as the main tool for spreading influence and promoting interests in developing countries. Such support, if we are to believe the “Project 2025”, should compete with the international initiatives of the main rival of the United States - China.
If the DFC receives a large part of the USAID budget, then grant funding from the American budget will be significantly reduced and will go to countries where the ideological allies of the Trumpists are in power. After this, USAID will become a secondary federal agency, and may even be abolished altogether.
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