New York Times: Trump Wants to Aid Only ‘America’s Friends.’ If Only It Were That Easy
“…President Trump’s insistence in his State of the Union address this past week that Congress pass laws to ensure that ‘American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends’ may not be as easy as it seems. Threats to cut American foreign aid have long been a talking point, particularly among Republicans trying to stir their base by tapping a popular, if inaccurate, perception that the money sent abroad is vast. … In any case, only about one percent of the United States federal budget goes to foreign aid … Americans nonetheless remain convinced that the country spends far more. In a 2015 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average respondent thought that 26 percent of the federal budget went to foreign aid…” (Erlanger, 2/3).