Trump administration to eliminate all USAID overseas positions in major overhaul

The Trump administration has announced a dramatic overhaul of the United States’ foreign aid operations, with plans to eliminate all United States Agency for International Development (USAID) overseas positions worldwide by September 30.

This decision will transfer full control of US foreign assistance programs directly to the State Department, marking a significant shift in the management of America’s global aid efforts, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

A State Department cable reveals that Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the abolition of USAID’s entire international workforce. The directive affects hundreds of staff members, including foreign service officers, contractors, and locally employed personnel across more than 100 countries. Chiefs of mission at US embassies have been instructed to prepare for the changes within four months.

“The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,” the cable states. It further adds that the State Department “will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID” from June 15.

This restructuring follows earlier significant cuts to USAID’s programs. Under the administration’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) initiative, 83 per cent of USAID’s projects were terminated within six weeks after Donald Trump took office. Rubio had announced in March that 5,200 of the agency’s 6,200 global programs had been closed, with the remaining efforts absorbed into the State Department.

The closures began after an executive order on January 20 froze foreign assistance pending review. Although a waiver was later granted for humanitarian aid, USAID’s future became uncertain when its website disappeared on February 1, followed by staff being told not to report to work. Leadership and senior officials were either fired or placed on disciplinary leave, and Rubio declared himself acting administrator.

According to internal USAID documents, senior officials warned Rubio about the devastating consequences of the cuts, including one million children untreated for malnutrition, up to 160,000 deaths from malaria, and 200,000 more children potentially paralyzed by polio over the next decade.

In March, remaining agency staff received instructions from acting secretary Erica Y. Carr to destroy classified documents, advising them to “shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”

By Vafa Guliyeva