Key points
- Rubio confirms takeover of USAID
- USAID’s website went dark over the weekend
- USAID had projects in around 130 countries in 2023
San Salvador, El Salvador: United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he had been put in charge of the US aid agency, saying he would stop its “insubordination” to President Donald Trump’s agenda.
According to AFP, after Trump’s billionaire friend and advisor Elon Musk vowed to “destroy” the US Agency for International Development (USAID), whose website went dark over the weekend, Rubio confirmed he and the State Department had assumed control of the autonomous body.
“I’m the acting director of USAID,” Rubio told reporters on a visit to El Salvador, although he said he was delegating day-to-day duties to a staffer.
Top three recipients of aid
Rubio, who supported foreign assistance as a senator, said that many of USAID’s functions would continue but accused it of acting as if it were an “independent non-governmental entity.”
“In many cases USAID is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do with our national strategy,” he said.
“It’s been 20 or 30 years that people have tried to reform it,” he said.
Rubio accused USAID professionals, many of whom have been put on leave, of failing to answer questions by the new Trump administration on their funding and priorities, AFP reported.
“That level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct a sort of serious review,” he said. “It’s going to stop and it’s going to end.”
Which countries does it support?
USAID had projects in around 130 countries in 2023, the most recent year for which full data was available, according to CRS.
The top three recipients of aid are Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Jordan respectively.
The scale of USAID’s funding for Ukraine is significant, with the war-torn European country receiving more than $16 billion in macroeconomic support, according to US government data.
In 2023, 70 of the 77 countries the World Bank determined to be low- and lower-middle income countries received USAID assistance, the CRS report noted.
Other top recipients of aid include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Syria.
Most of its support is channelled through the United States Agency for International Development, an independent government agency established by Congress in 1961.
In the 2023 fiscal year, USAID managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations, a recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted.
