US President Donald Trump will reduce previously allocated “extraordinary budget spending“ by almost $3 billion, $2.5 billion of which was intended for foreign aid, the Semafor portal reported, citing sources in the White House.
According to them, Trump will reduce the amount of emergency funding allocated under the 2023 debt collection bill adopted by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
The portal writes that about $2.5 billion that Trump plans to "cut" should have been allocated for foreign aid, including support for non-governmental organizations dealing with migration and refugees, economic development in Moldova and Georgia and projects related to integration. However, the measures will not affect military aid to allies, including Ukraine.
An official told the portal that some of the foreign aid funding “was not carefully checked, it was not well thought out“. “In fact, these funds not only cannot be classified as emergency, but are probably one of the lowest priority types of spending that could be allocated“, he noted.
The remaining approximately $9.4 billion in emergency funding provided by the 2023 law will remain untouched, Semafor says.
Immediately after US President Donald Trump took office on January 20, the country's authorities began a large-scale revision of state budget spending. According to statements by entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads the US government efficiency agency, he expects to reduce Washington's government spending by $2 trillion. The US national debt currently exceeds $36.5 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the national debt could exceed $50 trillion in 2034.