The Trump administration launched $5.3 billion in beforehand frozen international support, principally for safety and counternarcotics applications, in response to a listing of exemptions reviewed by Reuters that included solely restricted humanitarian aid.
The Bureau of Worldwide Safety and Nonproliferation, targeted on stopping the unfold of nuclear weapons and different weapons of mass destruction, acquired 17 exemptions price greater than $30.4 million, the checklist confirmed.
Additionally launched was $397 million for a US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistan {that a} congressional aide mentioned monitored Islamabad's use of US-made F-16 fighter jets to make sure they’re employed for counterterrorism operations and never in opposition to rival India.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on international support shortly after taking workplace on January 20, halting funding for all the pieces from applications that battle hunger and lethal ailments to offering shelters for hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals throughout the globe.
The freeze sparked a scramble by US officers and humanitarian organizations for exemptions to maintain applications going. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has mentioned all international help should align with Trump's "America First" priorities, issued waivers in late January on navy support to Israel and Egypt, the highest US allies within the Center East, and for life-saving humanitarian support, together with meals.
The waivers meant these funds ought to have been allowed to be spent.
Present and former US officers and support organizations, nonetheless, say few humanitarian support waivers have been permitted.
Reuters obtained a listing of 243 additional exceptions permitted as of February 13 totaling $5.3 billion. The checklist supplies essentially the most complete accounting of exempted funds since Trump ordered the help freeze and displays the White Home's want to chop support for applications it doesn't think about important to US nationwide safety.
The checklist identifies applications that can be funded and the US authorities workplace managing them. The overwhelming majority of launched fundsgreater than $4.1 billionhave been for applications administered by the US State Division's Bureau of Political-Army affairs, which oversees arms gross sales and navy help to different international locations and teams.
Different exemptions have been consistent with Trump's immigration crackdown and efforts to halt the move of illicit narcotics into the US, together with the lethal opioid fentanyl.
Greater than half of the applications that can be allowed to go ahead are run by the State Division's Bureau of Worldwide Narcotics and Regulation Enforcement Affairs, or INL, and
are aimed toward serving to battle drug trafficking and illicit migration to the US, in response to the checklist. These exemptions have been price $293 million and included funds for databases to trace migrants, determine attainable terrorists and share biometric data. A State Division spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Reuters couldn’t decide if some exemptions had been granted however weren’t on the checklist. Trump has lengthy railed in opposition to international support, which has averaged lower than 2% of whole federal spending for the previous 20 years, in response to the nonpartisan Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances.
Trump has described the US "international support trade" as "in lots of instances antithetical to American values". Billionaire Elon Musk's Division of Authorities Effectivity has led an effort to intestine the US Company for Worldwide Growth, the principle supply mechanism for American international help and a essential software of US "delicate energy" for successful affect overseas. In distinction to security-related applications, USAID applications acquired lower than $100 million in exemptions, in response to the checklist.
That compares to roughly $40 billion in USAID applications administered yearly earlier than the freeze. Exempted USAID applications included $78 million for non-food humanitarian help in Gaza, which has been devastated by conflict. A separate $56 million was launched for the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross associated to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the checklist confirmed.
The checklist didn’t embrace particular exemptions for a number of the world's worst humanitarian crises, together with Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar and Afghanistan, which suggests funds for these locations appeared to stay stopped.
Safety exemptions included $870 million for applications in Taiwan, $336 million for modernising Philippine safety forces and greater than $21.5 million for physique armor and armored autos for Ukraine's nationwide police and border guards, the checklist confirmed. The most important non-security exemption was $500 million in funding for PEPFAR, the flagship US program preventing HIV/AIDS, which primarily funds healthcare providers in Africa and is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
That compares with PEPFAR's annual funds in 2024 of $6.5 billion. PEPFAR is run by the State Division's international well being bureau.