Lead Patriot

Right Leaning Commentary

Rubio Issues Announcement About USAID
The Scoop

Rubio Issues Announcement About USAID

USAID is finished. Officially. What began as a bureaucratic audit has culminated in a full-scale shutdown, with the agency's foreign aid operations now absorbed into the U.S. State Department under the direct supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The final announcement came Tuesday, putting a definitive end to the United States Agency for International Development’s six-decade run.


According to the Trump administration, the shutdown follows a multi-phase restructuring effort led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which identified USAID as a deeply flawed institution. Critics long argued that the agency functioned less as a development tool and more as a slush fund for politically connected nonprofits and international NGOs. The audit confirmed those suspicions. The result: operational downsizing, absorption into the State Department, and now full dissolution.


Rubio laid out the rationale in a blunt public statement: “Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown.” He added that the era of “government-sanctioned inefficiency” is now over.


Beginning July 1, any foreign assistance programs deemed beneficial to U.S. national interests will be administered directly by the State Department. According to Rubio, this shift will ensure more “accountability, strategy, and efficiency.” The new model eliminates the autonomy USAID previously enjoyed and centralizes decision-making under a foreign policy framework explicitly tied to the administration’s strategic goals.


Not everyone is pleased. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted the move, suggesting other agencies like the IRS or intelligence community could be targeted next. Meanwhile, CNN aired projections claiming up to 14 million people could die as a result of USAID’s closure—though no independent source has substantiated that number. For context, liberal commentator Anand Giridharadas claimed just last year that 300,000 lives could be at risk. That number has since ballooned to 14 million without explanation.


Supporters of the closure argue those figures are not only unverified but emblematic of the fear-driven narratives surrounding bureaucratic reform. They also point to the agency’s track record: despite trillions in spending since its inception, USAID failed to improve U.S. favorability in critical regions, often funding recipients with little alignment to American values or interests.

Written by Arthur Higgens - July 2, 2025