State Department slows down US aid to Ukraine. Trump moves from words to deeds

11:09 26.01.2025 •

State Department issues immediate, widespread pause on foreign aid. The “stop-work orders” appear to apply to US aid for all countries except Israel and Egypt, writes POLITICO.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted spending Friday on most existing foreign aid grants for 90 days. The order, which shocked State Department officials, appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine.

Rubio’s guidance, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires department staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards,” according to the document, which was obtained by POLITICO. It is effective immediately.

It appears to go further than President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which instructed the department to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days pending review by the secretary. It had not been clear from the president’s order if it would affect already appropriated funds or Ukraine aid.

The new guidance means no further actions will be taken to disperse aid funding to programs already approved by the U.S. government, according to three current and two former officials familiar with the new guidance.

The order shocked some department officials for its sweeping mandate. “State just totally went nuclear on foreign assistance,” said another State Department official.

Still, the document leaves room for interpretation and does provide some exceptions. It specifies that foreign military financing for Egypt and Israel will continue and allows emergency food assistance and “legitimate expenses incurred prior to the date of this” guidance “under existing awards.” At points, it also says the decisions need to be “consistent with the terms of the relevant award.”

One current State Department official, plus two former Biden administration officials, said the pause appears to stop aid to key allies such as Ukraine, Jordan and Taiwan. They, and others, were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal government documents.

The guidance states that “decisions whether to continue, modify or terminate programs will be made following the review” from the secretary.

The omission of Ukraine is particularly troubling to American officials who want to help it defeat Russia.

Trump and Republicans have for years homed in on what they described as wasteful foreign aid spending under the Obama and Biden administrations. But in recent days, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Russia, threatening Moscow with sanctions if it does not end its nearly three-year invasion of Ukraine and declaring that Putin bears responsibility for ending the war.

The State Department is expected to prepare a report within 85 days of the guidance being issued, which will then accompany a recommendation from Rubio to Trump about which foreign assistance programs to continue and which to discontinue.

Families from Ukraine waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022.
Photo: The New York Times

Department of Homeland Security officials have ordered what amounts to a pause for a range of programs that allowed immigrants to settle in the United States temporarily, including a key initiative providing an entryway for Ukrainians.

The directive, contained in an email sent by the top official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and obtained by The New York Times, demands an immediate end to “final decisions” on applications related to the programs while the administration reviews them and decides whether to terminate them.

The scope of the programs mentioned in the pause is vast, and the decision will block the entrance of immigrants fleeing some of the most unstable and desperate places in the world. In addition to Ukraine, which has been battered by years of war, the programs offered a pathway to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, among others.

Administration officials have said President Trump believes that many of the programs were never lawful to begin with.

The affected programs also include Uniting for Ukraine, a Biden-era initiative that allowed Ukrainian immigrants to enter the United States temporarily if they had financial sponsors. More than 150,000 Ukrainians had entered under the program as of September 2023, according to government data.

 

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