Devex: In Trump’s U.S. aid review, can development principles prevail?
“In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump alluded to an effort his administration is pursuing that has raised concerns within the U.S. global development community. … ‘We are taking a hard look at U.S. foreign assistance,’ Trump said. ‘That will be headed up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We will examine what is working, what is not working, and whether the countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our interests at heart. Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends,’ Trump said. Members of the U.S. development community have been struggling to track down details about the Trump administration’s foreign assistance review for weeks. Some of them had previously worried the president might highlight the review at the U.N. before development professionals had any chance to weigh in…” (Igoe, 9/26).

Washington Post: Trump keeps threatening to end foreign aid for disloyal countries. Here’s why it hasn’t happened.
“…For several weeks, a senior official at the National Security Council, Kevin Harrington, has led a review of U.S. foreign aid policy aimed at putting into practice Trump’s ‘America First’ mantra and adjusting foreign aid priorities in the budget for fiscal 2020. In the process, he has faced stiff resistance from officials at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development who have said his proposals were counterproductive and contradictory, and could cede influence to China, according to senior U.S. administration officials familiar with the meetings. … The president is expected to bring up complaints about foreign aid with world leaders this week, a senior White House official said. Historically, U.S. aid has never been totally divorced from political considerations, but tying it directly to loyalty remains controversial even among conservative scholars. … For aid groups, the question of how to categorize which countries are loyal and which aren’t is mystifying…” (Hudson/Dawsey, 9/25).