The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially shut down following years of systematic cuts under President Donald Trump, culminating in its absorption by the State Department on Tuesday.

The agency, long considered the cornerstone of US foreign aid, was gradually dismantled due to what the Trump administration described as wasteful spending.

By March, over 80% of USAID’s programmes had already been cancelled, and the remaining operations have now been folded into the State Department, marking the end of the agency’s independent existence.

Founded in 1961, USAID had grown into the world’s largest foreign aid body, employing about 10,000 people globally, two-thirds of them stationed overseas. The dismantling of its operations, however, has provoked widespread condemnation from global humanitarian organisations and notable figures, including former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

The decision is expected to have dire humanitarian consequences. A report published in The Lancet medical journal warned that the aid cuts could result in over 14 million additional deaths by 2030, with children accounting for nearly a third of those at risk. The researchers described the projections as “staggering”. A State Department official, however, dismissed the findings, telling AFP the study was based on “incorrect assumptions” and that the US would continue providing aid more “efficiently”.

The cuts began early in Trump’s second term after he appointed billionaire and former adviser Elon Musk to streamline the federal workforce. Programmes slashed included support for landmine clearance, Ebola containment in Africa, and the provision of prosthetics to injured soldiers in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, USAID’s website still carried a notice stating that all direct-hire personnel worldwide were placed on administrative leave as of 23 February. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, now overseeing the remaining aid programmes, said his department would handle the estimated 1,000 remaining initiatives. “This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end,” Rubio said, adding in a Substack post, “Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests.”

Trump has repeatedly reiterated that US foreign spending must align with his “America First” agenda.

The closure drew sharp rebuke from both Democratic and Republican leaders. In a video conference held with U2 frontman Bono, Obama and Bush addressed thousands of USAID employees, thanking them for their service and condemning the shutdown.

Bush, who launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) during his tenure, focused on the dismantling of that programme. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you,” he told workers in a recorded message.

Obama called the closure a “tragedy” and “a travesty,” praising USAID’s role as “some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world”.

Bono, known for his humanitarian activism, added: “They called you crooks, when you were the best of us.”

USAID’s shutdown has triggered a ripple effect across the global aid sector. Following the US cuts, other countries—including the UK, France, and Germany—also scaled back foreign aid spending. The United Nations last month described the current financial shortfall as “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector.”

Faridah Abdulkadiri

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