Internal USAID memo urges staff to align with "America First"

27/1/2025 6:06

The Trump administration

urged U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers

to join the effort to transform how Washington allocates aid

around the world in line with Trump’s “America First” policy. It

threatened "disciplinary action" for any staff ignoring the

administration's orders.



A sharply-worded memo sent on Saturday to more than 10,000

staff at USAID offered further guidance to Friday’s “stop-work”

directive that effectively put a sweeping freeze on U.S. foreign

aid worldwide. The memo, reviewed by Reuters, laid out

expectations for the workforce on how to achieve Trump’s goals.



"We have a responsibility to support the President in

achieving his vision," Ken Jackson, assistant to the

administrator for management and resources wrote in the internal

memo, titled “Message and Expectation to the Workforce.”



"The President has given us a tremendous opportunity to

transform the way we approach foreign assistance for decades to

come," the memo said. Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the

memo with several sources.

Since taking office last week, Trump has taken steps toward

fulfilling his vow to remake a federal bureaucracy he believes

was hostile to him during his 2017-2021 presidency. He has

reassigned or fired hundreds of federal workers in simultaneous

moves against a swath of agencies.

Hours after taking office, Trump ordered a 90-day pause in

foreign aid to review if it was aligned with his foreign policy

priorities. On Friday, the State Department issued a stop-work

order worldwide even for existing and appropriated assistance,

calling into question billions of dollars of life-saving aid.



The United States is the largest single donor of aid

globally. In fiscal year 2023, it disbursed $72 billion in

assistance. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by

the United Nations in 2024.



USAID and the White House National Security Council (NSC)

did not respond to a request for comment on this story.



Friday’s memo shocked the humanitarian groups and

communities conducting development aid across the globe. While

the scope of the directive appears far-reaching, uncertainties

linger over how it will be carried out.



The memo on Saturday offered only partial clarity.



The pause on foreign aid spending means “a complete halt,”

it said. The only exceptions are for emergency humanitarian food

assistance and for government officials returning to their duty

stations. Waivers allowing delivery of emergency food during the

review period will require “detailed information and

justification.”



The memo said further waivers would require two layers of

approval – one from USAID leadership and another by U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio.



"Any waiver must be thoroughly justified to demonstrate that

the specific assistance for which the waiver is sought is

necessary for lifesaving purposes, cannot be performed by

current U.S. direct hire staff, or would otherwise pose

significant risks to national security," the memo said.



All foreign assistance programs will undergo “comprehensive

review” during the pause in spending, the memo says. “It is

important to emphasize that it is no longer business as usual.

Every program will be thoroughly scrutinized.”



Saturday’s directive also banned any communications outside

the agency, including between USAID and the State Department,

unless they are approved by the former’s front office.



"Failure to abide by this directive, or any of the

directives sent out earlier this week and in the coming weeks,

will result in disciplinary action," it said.



USAID began sending a notice to contractors ordering them to

“immediately issue stop-work orders” and to “amend, or suspend

existing awards.”



VULNERABLE POPULATIONS



Humanitarian organizations and other donors are scrambling

to understand how the directive will impact life-saving

operations in countries across the globe. It is too soon to tell

whether or what specific services will have to be paused, they

said.



Among the places the U.S. plays a crucial life-saving role

is famine-stricken Sudan, where at least 24.6 million people

urgently need food assistance, according to a December report

from the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC), a global

food security watchdog. The U.S. provided 45% percent of

humanitarian aid recorded by the U.N. for Sudan in 2024.



"Any reduction in funding would inevitably affect the most

vulnerable people relying on humanitarian operations in Sudan,”

said a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).



Even if the policy does allow emergency food assistance to

continue, it does not mention other life-saving services

required to treat people suffering the effects of acute

malnutrition and starvation.



“Hunger doesn’t just leave people with an empty stomach. It

weakens the body’s ability to fight off infections and diseases,

making them so much more vulnerable to illness, which can lead

to serious health problems or even death,” said Deepmala Mahla,

chief humanitarian officer for the relief organization CARE.



“This is not just about funding,” she said. “It is about the

very survival of the most vulnerable in conflict zones.”