World Politics Review: Foreign Aid Is the Latest Casualty of American Retrenchment Under Trump
Ellen Laipson, director of the International Security Program at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government

“…There is undoubtedly some value in rethinking parts of America’s foreign assistance strategy. Questioning why some countries remain on aid rosters for decades is a fair exercise; some poor countries readily admit that taking aid from rich countries is easier than developing home-grown solutions to hard problems. Officials at USAID cannot be comfortable with the Trump team’s new politicization of aid choices, and they must despair at the prospects of closing operations in some of the world’s neediest places that no longer meet the new criteria for help. Congress and the American public do not take as harsh a view on foreign aid as the president, so any adjustments to aid levels and country criteria will probably not be as draconian as feared. … Now, despite sincere efforts by the career diplomats and public servants who Trump considers the ‘deep state,’ aid risks becoming another casualty of America’s retrenchment” (10/5).