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1 day ago
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The Trump administration is reportedly proposing to slash its budget to the state department by nearly half in a move that could drastically reduce US international budget and ending its funding for Nato and the United Nations, according to an internal memorandum.
The memo based on spending cuts devised by the White House office and management and budget envisions the total budget of the state department and USAID, the main foreign assistance body which has been largely dismantled by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, being reduced to $28.4bn, a reduction of $27bn or 48% from what Congress approved for 2025.
The cuts would mean drastic decreases in funding for humanitarian assistance, global health and international organizations. Humanitarian assistance programs and global health funding would be slashed by 54% and 55% respectively, according to the memo, which was first reported by the Washington Post.
The memo assumes that USAID, previously an independent agency before it was targeted by Doge, would be encompassed fully under the state department umbrella.
There would also be drastic reductions to the state department workforce, which currently stands at 80,000.
The memo proposes the elimination of 90% of support for international organizations, with financing for some 20 bodies – including the Nato alliance and the UN – eliminated.
Targeted funding for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Civil Aviation Authority would continue but backing for international peacekeeping missions would end, according to the memo, citing unspecified “recent mission failures”.
The cuts would also see the foreign service travel budget and benefits for staff severely curtailed, while the Fulbright scholarship, established by Congress in 1946 and which has facilitated educational exchanges between more than 40 future heads of state or government, would be eliminated.
So too would Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, which aims to anticipate and prevent wars across the globe.
The cuts are yet to be agreed within the administration and would need to be approved by Congress, where they would be likely to encounter stiff resistance, even among many Republicans.
The memo, dated 10 April, is signed by Douglas Pitkin, director of budget and planning at the state department, and Peter Marocco, who was until recent days the department’s director of foreign assistance and acting deputy director of USAID.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state – who has hitherto favored an activist US role in international affairs – has until Tuesday to respond, the memo says.
Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the state department and USAID subcommittee of the Senate foreign relations committee, criticized the proposals as “an unserious budget”.
“I predict it will hit a wall of bipartisan opposition,” he told the Post.
The American Foreign Service Association called on Congress to reject any budget proposing cuts outlined in the memo, which it called “reckless and dangerous”. The cuts suggested “would empower adversaries like China and Russia who are eager to fill the void left by a retreating United States”, the association said.
