Foreign Aid — News & Analysis

Trump freezes all foreign aid on day one; food for starving millions stranded at U.S. ports (January 20, 2025)

January 20, 2025 — President Trump signed Executive Order 14169 on his first day back in office, imposing an immediate 90-day freeze on virtually all U.S. foreign assistance and directing a stop-work order on existing programs — abruptly halting the world's largest humanitarian aid operation. The freeze swept in food aid, disease prevention programs, nutrition support for malnourished children, clean water projects, and famine monitoring systems that together served hundreds of millions of people across more than 120 countries.

The immediate logistical consequences were severe. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas — a Republican — reported that $340 million in U.S.-grown agricultural products was sitting in domestic ports unable to ship, including wheat, sorghum, rice, lentils, peas, and vegetable oils bound for populations facing starvation. In Sudan, nearly 30,000 metric tons of food aid meant to feed acutely malnourished adults and children was stuck in hot warehouses, at risk of spoiling before the 90-day pause expired. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver purportedly exempting emergency food and "lifesaving" programs, but confusion about what qualified — combined with the mass placement of USAID staff on administrative leave — left even the exempted programs paralyzed.

The U.S. had been the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance in the world, accounting for more than 40 percent of global humanitarian funding. The sudden and total freeze created what Reuters described as a "two-pronged crisis": impairing programs that prevent mass starvation, and simultaneously hobbling the response systems needed to save lives in active crises.