The dismantling of USAID — along with parallel cuts by European donors that have driven Western assistance to its lowest level since 2016 — has left fragile states without a development model, writes Eghosa E. Osaghae, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. 

U.S. foreign aid disbursements fell to $47.3 billion in 2025 — roughly $26 billion below the prior year and, adjusted for inflation, the lowest level since 2004. Pew's analysis of federal data shows aid dropped to 0.67% of total federal spending in 2025 and about 0.09% so far in 2026.

After the Trump administration froze foreign aid and shuttered USAID, farm-state lawmakers revived the flagship hunger program at the Department of Agriculture. But former Food for Peace director Dina Esposito warns USDA has no humanitarian mandate or expertise and is bypassing the worst hunger hotspots, according to this NPR reporting. 

Where the U.S. mounted a $3 billion relief effort with 7,000 troops after Haiti's 2010 earthquake, it has offered Venezuela just $300 million and roughly 900 personnel following June's twin quakes — a fraction of the estimated $8 billion in Venezuelan oil revenues Washington has collected since deposing Nicolás Maduro in January, the New York Times reports. 

In an interview with NPR marking a year since USAID's official shutdown, former administrator Samantha Power argues the deepest damage won't register for generations, but points to the Republican-led Congress's $50 billion foreign assistance bill as evidence USAID could someday be reconstituted.

In a Semafor op-ed, former Liberian minister W. Gyude Moore argues that the abrupt dismantling of USAID has caused real humanitarian harm and damaged America's standing in Africa, but the deeper failure it exposes is African governments' inability to fund essential services on their own.

Jeremy Lewin — who oversaw the gutting of USAID through DOGE before becoming undersecretary of State for foreign assistance — has had his planned move to the National Security Council paused after Laura Loomer publicized his past ties to Democrats, Politico reports.

With official development assistance falling 23.1% in 2025 and projected to decline a further 5.8% in 2026, The Conversation argues that the pullback in U.S. and other Western aid should push African governments to build fiscal self-reliance through fairer domestic taxation, smarter debt use, and unified bargaining power rather than continued dependence on donor goodwill.

More than a year after the Trump administration dismantled USAID, researchers launching a three-year study of Malawi's post-USAID education sector find the country in a "transitional space," where the terms of development are being rewritten, according to The Conversation.

A USAID inspector general report finds that roughly $8 million worth of taxpayer-funded contraceptives bound for low-income African nations has spoiled in a Belgian warehouse after the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, The Hill reports.

HuffPost reports that the New World screwworm has been confirmed in south Texas for the first time in decades, roughly a year after DOGE eliminated the USAID-funded program that monitored and helped contain the parasite's northward spread. While it remains unclear whether the cuts directly enabled the outbreak, the case has raised alarm about a potentially costly crisis for the U.S. cattle industry as beef prices climb.

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman argues in Foreign Affairs that while the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID has been deeply damaging, the development sector can still make progress by pivoting toward investment in local capacity and self-reliance.

Having dismantled USAID, the Trump administration is replacing roughly $44 billion in foreign assistance with bilateral "America First" health deals that offer recipient countries five years of reduced funding in exchange for up to 25 years of patient data and, in some cases, preferential access to critical minerals,, the Financial Times reports.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration's negotiations with Zambia have stalled after the U.S. tied a multibillion-dollar health aid package with access to the country's critical minerals. The standoff spotlights the administration's shift from development assistance to transactional agreements that condition lifesaving health funding on commercial concessions.

The Trump administration is threatening to withhold further funding from the United Nations unless it adopts sweeping reforms while promoting a new "trade over aid" strategy that aid organizations warn could severely reduce healthcare, education, and food support for millions worldwide, The Guardian reports.

Robert Rotberg argues that the Trump administration's cuts to USAID and PEPFAR have been devastating for sub-Saharan Africa.

As part of its broader dismantling of traditional U.S. foreign assistance, the Trump administration is pushing U.N. member states to endorse a "Trade Over Aid Initiative" that promotes free-market reforms over donor-funded development, the AP reports.

DW reports that the Trump administration is pressuring Zambia to sign a bilateral health deal that would tie continued HIV treatment funding — relied on by 1.3 million people — to demands for access to the country's critical mineral reserves.

Global development aid fell by a record 23% in 2025 to $174.3 billion — the largest single-year drop ever recorded — with the U.S. alone driving three-quarters of the decline following the dismantling of USAID, according to new OECD data reported by Reuters.

Despite pledging to cut out "beltway bandits" in favor of local organizations, the Trump administration's overhaul of foreign aid funneled hundreds of millions in new dollars to a handful of large U.S.-based contractors in 2025, according to the New York Times.