Trump suspends for 90 days international aid: What is known so far?

United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that temporarily suspends all US international assistance programmes for 90 days until they are reviewed if they are in line with his political goals.

It is still not clear how this decision will affect the current US aid programmes, as funding for many programmes has already been approved by the US Congress and should be spent if not spent.

Free Europe Radio has asked the US Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), if this decision will in any way influence the first aid to Kosovo, but so far, has not received answers.

The USAID website says that since 1999, over a billion dollars have been spent on Kosovo's development.

In October of last year, USAID marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment in Kosovo, where it has developed programmes for fighting corruption, rule of law and good governance, the fight against disinformation and lack of independent media, strengthening civil society and democracy, economic development and attracting foreign investment.

In August 2024, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani signed a grant with USAID, which offered additional assistance to Kosovo institutions worth $35m.

The grant was part of the previously reached deal worth about $146 million, aimed at providing better services to citizens, increasing the responsibility of institutions, and more efficient management.

Actually, USAID in Kosovo is funding a host of activities. These include:

-Help over $12 million in support of legislative reforms and establishment of the Commercial Court;

-I helped $15 million to improve the inclusion and accountability of government;

-Helping over $13 million to address the challenges of corruption and good governance in municipalities;

--help nearly $12 million to improve the independence of the judiciary and prioritism of citizens' needs during judicial processes;

-Help over $16 million to promote good competition in domestic and international markets;

-Helping over $13 million for citizen participation in local government;

I helped nearly $12 million to increase institutional capacity for energy market development.

Such aid has continued during the period when the US and the EU have criticised the Government of Kosovo for decisions that primarily concern the lives of Serbs in the four Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo, such as the removal of the Serbian dinar, expropriation in northern Kosovo for building police bases, the closure of parallel institutions operating according to the Serbian system, etc.

Assistant Administration at the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia in U AID, Erin Elizabeth McKee part of former US president's administration, Joe Bien '%s', had said during her visit to Kosovo last year that the focus of USAID in the future will be supporting reform implementation under the Western Balkans Growth Plan.

“This is a real opportunity for all six Western Balkan countries to move forward on EU membership and to be able not only to pass reforms, but to implement them in a meaningful way”, she told Radio Free Europe.

But the order, among many that Trump signed on his first day after his return to office, said that <x0 industry and international assistance bureaucracy are not in line with American interests, and in many cases are contrary to American values”.

On the other hand, it says these aides serve to destabilise world peace by promoting ideas in foreign states that are directly opposed to harmonious and stable relations within and between states”.

As a result, Trump announced that “would no longer distribute international aid from the United States in a way that is not fully in line with the US president's foreign policy”.

Last week, the new US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that every $ “we spend, every program we finance and every policy we pursue, should be justified with the answer to three simple questions”.

Could it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America richer?

The order signed by Trump leaves Rubio or his representative in charge of determining whether a assistance is in line with politics or not, in consultation with the Management and Budget Office.

The State Department and the American Agency for International Assistance are the main agencies that oversee international aid.

Trump has long criticised international aid, despite the fact that such assistance usually accounts for about 1 percent of the federal budget, in addition to the extraordinary circumstances such as billions of Ukraine's weapons.

Trump has been critical of the amount sent to Ukraine to help strengthen its defence against Russia's invasion.

The latest official estimate of international aid in the Benden administration shows that 68 billion dollars have been committed to programmes abroad ranging from disaster aid to health and pro-democratic initiatives in 204 states and regions.

Some of the biggest recipients of US aid, Israel with $3.3 billion annually, Egypt with $1.5 billion a year, and Jordan with 1.7 billion a year are believed to see dramatic reductions in financing, as these amounts are included in long-term packages dating back decades, and in some cases are regulated by treaty obligations.

Funding for UN agencies, including peace storage agencies, human rights and refugees, have traditionally been targets for the Republican administrations. The first Trump administration began reducing spending for international aid by suspending payments to several UN agencies, including the UN Population Fund and funding for the Palestinian Authority. / REL/