Trump Plan Published Detailing Foreign Aid Cuts

President Trump’s previously announced plan to slash State Department funding as part of an effort to free up more money to spend on the military has been published today, with details on the programs and countries seeing a cut detailed alongside some countries seeing significant spending increases.

A lot of countries are seeing big cuts in Economic Support Fund spending, with Egypt to lose nearly half of their spending. Some countries, like Poland, are losing 100% of their funding. Despite the emphasis on cuts, however, there are some regions seeing increases.

Iraq is seeing the biggest growth in aid, with their aid to rise 144.9%, while Libya is to see a 130% increase. Interestingly enough, US spending in the occupied Palestinian territories is even expected to increase 4.6%.

This is quite a surprise, with President Trump having played up his cozy relationship with the Egypt junta, and showing little to no inclination to provide aid to the Palestinians. Obviously, the details of where the money is going are not totally clear.

Selling such cuts to Congress may be tricky business, with some Congressional leaders having rejected the State Department cuts out of hand even before the details were published. There is already speculation that influential countries like Egypt might see compensatory increases in military aid to make up for the civilian aid cuts.

The full PDF of the cuts and increases is available here.