President Donald Trump has frozen funding for the National Endowment for Democracy and proposes to shut down USAID funding. The US president’s spending cut reportedly leaves the organizations unable to pay staff and grantees.
Well, it’s a start anyway.
In one of his first executive orders after taking office, President Donald Trump suspended all foreign aid ($68 billion), pending a review of its alignment with US national interests.
Pursuant to these orders, President Trump’s administration has frozen all funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The move is said to have caused what some have called a “bloodbath” within the organization, leaving it unable to pay staff or fulfill financial commitments.
The NED, established in 1983, is officially a nonprofit organization that, ostensibly, provides grants to support democratic initiatives worldwide. However, over the years, it has faced allegations of covertly influencing political outcomes overseas, with critics arguing that it has taken over covert functions previously handled by the CIA, particularly those aimed at undermining and in some instances overthrowing foreign governments.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk, who heads Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given responsibility for finding ways to cut federal spending. Musk singled out NED immediately, calling it a ”scam” and an “evil organization” that needs to be dissolved. Since then, this organization and others have reportedly felt “under siege” from Musk’s DOGE.
“It’s been a bloodbath,” one NED worker told the Daily Mail, explaining that the organization has been unable to meet payroll and pay basic overhead expenses. It has an allocation budget of $142 million for the current fiscal year and has already allocated $70 million for distribution to various NGOs.
The NED has faced longstanding criticism over its role in supporting political movements to undermine sovereign governments. The Center for Renewing America, a research organization founded by Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, released a policy paper on February 7, accusing the NED of functioning as the “tip of the proverbial spear for heightened CIA and State Department efforts to foster political revolution in Ukraine.”
The report claimed that the NED had funneled tens of millions of dollars to a myriad of Ukrainian political entities and anti-Russian interests and “advanced both the ‘Orange Revolution’ (2004) and ‘Maidan Revolution’ (2014) that paved the way for the current Ukraine-Russia war.”
The NED has also faced accusations of sponsoring “color revolutions” in Georgia and
Kyrgyzstan and of funding opposition groups in Belarus, Serbia, and Egypt. The funding freeze on the organization comes as part of broader measures by the Trump administration to cut foreign spending.
Trump’s “executive pen” has also included a crackdown on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s primary vehicle for funding political projects abroad. Trump earlier called for the agency to be shut down, claiming it is run by “radical lunatics.”
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has formally requested that Elon Musk disclose detailed information about American grants allocated to Slovak NGOs and media outlets through Washington’s primary agency for funding political projects abroad — USAID.
In a letter to DOGE chief Musk – who previously branded USAID a “criminal organization” – Fico voiced concerns over what he described as “gross interference” in Slovakia’s political landscape.
“It is undeniable that funds originating from USAID were also used for political purposes in Slovakia to distort the political system and favor specific political parties,” Fico wrote in a letter shared on X on Tuesday. He urged Musk to disclose which NGOs, media outlets, and individual journalists had received US funding.
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban similarly announced that his government would seek full transparency regarding USAID grants to NGOs and media outlets critical of his administration, emphasizing the need to “eliminate these foreign networks” that interfere in the country’s domestic affairs. In late 2023, his government created the Sovereignty Protection Office to monitor and address the risk of political interference in the country. Foreign financing for parties or groups running for office are banned in the country, with penalties of up to three years in prison.
On Tuesday evening, USAID staff received an email saying that starting Friday, “all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs.” The email added that essential staff would be notified on Thursday afternoon and that the agency would begin moving international staff back to the US within 30 days.
Data for fiscal year 2024 shows that USAID distributed nearly $32.5 billion (its entire budget) in aid that year, much of it to Africa and the Middle East. The US spends more on humanitarian aid than other countries by wide margins, though foreign aid spending is under 1% of the federal budget. The US provides some amount of aid to most countries, including nearly every country in Africa and Asia.
Many polls have found a majority of Americans believe the US is spending too much on foreign aid, including for Ukraine.
But here’s the thing: How much of the spending cuts will Congress (regarding the NED and USAID) permit and which cuts will federal courts rule exceed President Trump’s authority?
This is a drama that will surely play out in the midst of Trump “taking Gaza,” the Ukraine proxy war with Russia and the global array of punitive tariffs orchestrated between the US, Canada, Mexico, China and the EU – so far.
