Center for Global Development’s “U.S. Development Policy”: The Foreign Aid Cuts Look to Be Real Enough, But the Trump Administration Doesn’t Necessarily Want to Own Them
Scott Morris, senior fellow and director of the U.S. Development Policy Initiative at CGD, examines President Trump’s FY 2018 budget blueprint released Thursday, writing, “When it comes to foreign assistance, the skinny budget doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, with statements that are both confused and confusing. … Two weeks ago the White House highlighted cuts to international programs in comments to reporters in a pretty clear attempt to demonstrate that it would be putting ‘America first’ in its first year budget. Yet, [Thursday’s] skinny budget seems to want to have it both ways: we are cutting foreign assistance, but only in a few areas are we willing to say so unambiguously. Let’s be clear. The $18.1 billion reduction overall is real and will have real and wide ranging impact in areas far beyond climate funding if Congress goes along. But it is telling that already the administration seems to feel the need to offer the appearance of continuity with long standing U.S. leadership in global health, humanitarian assistance, and multilateral development” (3/16).