Trump Administration Dismantles Most USAID Programs Without Congressional Abolition

October 8, 2026

The Trump administration used Executive Order 14169 to freeze foreign assistance for 90 days, then terminated roughly 83% of USAID’s programs by March 2025. Remaining functions were absorbed into the State Department on July 1, 2025. An August 2025 pocket rescission canceled additional billions. The article states these steps, combined with prior waste documented by inspectors general, have made the agency smaller, harder to revive, and less appealing as a career destination even though Congress has not statutorily abolished USAID.

Sources

• Just the News (October 8, 2026): https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/stripping-usaid-permanently-damages-org-makes-prospect-working-there?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators
• Also cited in the article (not linked here): Executive Order 14169; KFF timeline of the USAID reorganization; a White House release; the Rescissions Act of 2025; H.R. 1029; an October 2024 letter from Sen. Tom Cotton; a USAID Office of Inspector General review; the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction final accounting