WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old US Agency for International Development and he would move the 18 percent of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department.
Rubio made the announcement in a post on X, in one of his relatively few public comments on what has been a historic shift away from US foreign aid and development, executed by Trump political appointees at State and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams.
Rubio thanked DOGE and “our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform” in foreign aid.
In another final step in the breakup of USAID, the Trump administration on Monday gave USAID staffers abroad until April 6 to move back to the United States if they want to do so on the government’s tab, according to a USAID email sent to staffers and seen by The Associated Press. Staffers say the deadline gives them scant time to pull children from school, sell homes or break leases, and, for many, find somewhere to live after years away from the United States.
President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all of the tens of billions of dollars of US aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.
Rubio’s social media post Monday said that review was now “officially ending,” with some 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs eliminated.
Those programs “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio wrote.
“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18 percent of programs we are keeping ... to be administered more effectively under the State Department,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers and others call the shutdown of congressionally funded programs illegal, saying such a move requires Congress’ approval.
USAID supporters said the sweep of the cuts made it difficult to tell what US efforts abroad the Trump administration actually supports.
“The patterns that are emerging is the administration does not support democracy programs, they don’t support civil society ... they don’t support NGO programs,” or health or emergency response, said Andrew Natsios, the USAID administrator for Republican former President George W. Bush.
“So what’s left”?” Natsios asked.
A group of former US diplomats, national security figures and others condemned what it said was an opaque, partisan and rushed review process and urged Congress to intervene.
“The facts show that life-saving programs were severely cut, putting millions of people in allied countries at risk of starvation, disease and death,” while giving Russia, China and other adversaries opportunities to gain influence abroad as the US retreats, the group, the US Global Leadership Coalition, said.
The Trump administration gave almost no details on which aid and development efforts abroad it spared as it mass-emailed contract terminations to aid groups and other USAID partners by the thousands within days earlier this month. The rapid pace, and the steps skipped in ending contracts, left USAID supporters challenging whether any actual program-by-program reviews had taken place.
Aid groups say even some life-saving programs that Rubio and others had promised to spare are in limbo or terminated, such as those providing emergency nutritional support for starving children and drinking water for sprawling camps for families uprooted by war in Sudan.
Republicans broadly have made clear they want foreign assistance that would promote a far narrower interpretation of US national interests going forward.
The State Department in one of multiple lawsuits it is battling over its rapid shutdown of USAID had said earlier this month it was killing more than 90 percent of USAID programs. Rubio gave no explanation for why his number was lower.
The dismantling of USAID that followed Trump’s order upended decades of policy that humanitarian and development aid abroad advanced US national security by stabilizing regions and economies, strengthening alliances and building goodwill.
In the weeks after Trump’s order, one of his appointees and transition team members, Pete Marocco, and Musk pulled USAID staff around the world off the job through forced leaves and firings, shut down USAID payments overnight and terminated aid and development contracts by the thousands.
Contractors and staffers running efforts ranging from epidemic control to famine prevention to job and democracy training stopped work. Aid groups and other USAID partners laid off tens of thousands of their workers in the US and abroad.
Lawsuits say the sudden shutdown of USAID has stiffed aid groups and businesses that had contracts with it totaling billions of dollars.
The shutdown has left many USAID staffers and contractors and their families still overseas, many of them awaiting back payments and travel expenses to return home. The administration is offering extensions on the 30-day deadline for staffers to return, but workers are skeptical enough USAID staffers remain on the job to process requests.
In Washington, the sometimes contradictory orders issued by the three men — Rubio, Musk and Marocco — overseeing the USAID cuts have left many uncertain who was calling the shots and fueled talk of power struggles.
Musk and Rubio on Monday, as Trump had last week, insisted relations between the two of them were smooth.
“Good working with you,” Musk tweeted in response to Rubio’s announcement.
Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency’s projects gone
https://arab.news/r72k7
Secretary of State Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete, with 83% of agency’s projects gone
- Rubio’s social media post Monday said that review was now “officially ending,” with some 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs eliminated
Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede
- Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India
The stampede occurred on Friday night during the annual Shri Lairai Zatra festival in Shirgao village, which is popular for its events including fire-walking.
“Devotees were witnessing a religious ceremony and the frenzy caused during the rituals triggered a stampede,” said V.S. Chadonkar, a police officer in Goa’s state capital Panjim.
“Six people lost their lives and at least eight were critically injured,” he said.
Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces often ignoring safety protocol.
VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time
- In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of d
- Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark
WASHINGTON: When JD Vance was running for vice president, he walked across an airport tarmac in Wisconsin one August day when his campaign travels happened to intersect those of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and approached Air Force Two. Besides wanting to take a poke at Republican Donald Trump’s rival for avoiding the press, Vance said, “I just wanted to check out my future plane.”
It’s an aircraft he now knows well.
In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of domestic trips. His international forays have featured a mix of meetings with world leaders, sharply crafted speeches advancing US policy, “soft power” appearances to build goodwill and family time at tourist sites along the way.
Diplomacy before family and cultural sights
Vance’s trips have included a five-day trip to Europe in February, a hastily reorganized trek to Greenland in March and a tour of Italy and India in April that was notable for the vice president’s brief meeting with Pope Francis the day before the pontiff died.
In his first big moment on the world stage in February, Vance pressed Trump’s “America first” message at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and spoke of maintaining US dominance in the surging industry. From there, he attended a security conference in Munich, where the vice president left his audience stunned with his lecturing remarks about democracy and scant focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In March, Vance delivered pointed remarks while in Greenland, scolding Denmark for not investing more in the security of its territory and demanding a new approach. Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark.
There’s been dealmaking, too.
In India last month, Vance announced after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they had agreed on a negotiating framework for a US-India trade deal. In Italy, he held talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in addition to his separate audiences with the pope and a top Vatican official.
Family time follows Vance’s diplomatic work
Vance has been accompanied on his overseas trips by his wife, Usha, and their 7- and 5-year-old sons and 3-year-old daughter. The kids are usually in pajamas as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.
The Vances have gazed aloft at the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and been photographed, with the children in traditional Indian dress, in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra. Without their children, the Vances also visited Dachau in Germany.
Brad Blakeman, a former senior official in George W. Bush’s administration who has provided planning advice to Vance’s office for some of his foreign travel, said that, while some personal time is woven in, these are not vacations.
“You try and balance the policy with the culture aspect of the trip so that you’re honoring the customs and culture of the places that you are visiting,” he said. Visiting iconic cultural sites while abroad shows respect and builds rapport with host nations that can enhance diplomacy.
It’s also important to be mindful that the president and vice president travel at the public’s expense, he said.
“That’s the balancing act that always has to be done because of the stewardship of the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Joel Goldstein, a law professor at Saint Louis University who specializes in the US vice presidency, said the journeys also could be intended to build Vance’s foreign policy chops.
“Part of foreign travel for a vice president is establishing a national security and diplomatic credential,” he said, noting that it’s particularly important for Vance.
At age 40, Vance served just two years in the Senate before ascending to the office.
Vance displays the habits of a millennial
Vance is also the second-youngest person and the first of the millennial generation to hold the job.
“Generations” author Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor who studies generational differences, said the ease with which Vance moves between work and leisure is emblematic of his generation.
“The research suggests that, just with Internet use and social media use, the lines between work time and family time blur, that you switch tasks much more quickly than, say, Gen Xers or boomers,” she said.
Vance frequently switches gears on the road. Last week, he wedged in a quick beer with service members in Germany — and autographed the “kegerator” built by one airman — after days of wall-to-wall official and cultural activities throughout Italy and India.
Some of the Vances’ activities have been unwelcome
Usha Vance was originally slated for a solo trip to Greenland with one of their sons to attend a dogsled race. But that plan was scrapped amid growing discontent from the governments of Greenland and Denmark over the visit and Trump’s tough talk of the US taking the territory away from a NATO ally. Instead, the vice president joined the trip, and their visit was limited to a US military base there.
On his Italy trip, Vance took heat on X for being photographed inside the Sistine Chapel. Photography there is usually forbidden, but the session turned out to have been sanctioned by the Vatican, as has happened on past visits by US dignitaries.
A decision during the same trip to close the Roman Colosseum to the public so Usha Vance and the children could take a tour drew some grumbling from tourists stranded outside. A consumer group has since filed a legal complaint.
In India, the Taj Mahal, normally swarming with tourists, was also closed to visitors to accommodate the Vances, according to local media reports.
American officials are often formally invited to make such cultural diversions, and it’s not unusual for the US Secret Service, which provides protection for top US officials, to ask for the sites to be closed to the public for security reasons during presidential and vice presidential tours.
The Vances appear to have tried on occasion to avoid such disruptions. In France, the family visited the Louvre on a Tuesday, a day when the museum is closed to the public.
Such trips have a long history
Other recent vice presidents also have taken family members along on trips. Presidents do, as well.
As vice president, Democrat Joe Biden often took one of his older granddaughters on trips, a practice he continued as president. Presidents’ children, including Malia and Sasha Obama and Chelsea Clinton, went along on some trips with their parents, too.
Practices differ, but the idea is the same: Time in office is short, so make the most of it and expose your children to the world.
Usha Vance said as much during the family visit to India, where her parents were born. She hadn’t visited in decades, and her husband and children had never been there.
In an interview with India’s NDTV, she said she’d been anxious to make the “trip of a lifetime” with them.
“It’s been something that I’ve wanted to share with my new nuclear family,” the US second lady said, adding that they knew Vance would have a chance to visit India as vice president. “We always knew that, when that opportunity arose, we would all come with him.”
“We think of it as sort of a gateway, the first of many trips to come, I hope,” she said.
Soft diplomacy is another goal
One aim of vice presidential travel abroad is often soft diplomacy, or the building of favorable attitudes toward the US through imagery and symbolism.
When Vance, with his wife of Indian descent and their children, is photographed at the Taj Mahal, it sends a message of solidarity with that nation. When he visits the Vatican and worships there, it emphasizes common ground with Catholics around the world.
Likewise, when Vance appears in public with his children, it could help drive home his quest to encourage large families and build goodwill among American voters, said University of Dayton political scientist Christopher Devine, co-author of “Do Running Mates Matter?”
“I wonder, with JD Vance, if it’s an effort to soften his image,” Devine said. “He’s someone who has not been particularly popular ever since he entered the national scene, and appearing with family tends to make people a little more likable, harder to hate.”
Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs
- Trump once disparaged his political adversary as "Little Marco" and labeled him a con artist
- Now Trump has named him as top national security aide in addition to his main job as top diplomat
WASHINGTON: Top diplomat, foreign aid chief, national archivist and now national security adviser.
Marco Rubio’s expanding resume underscores President Donald Trump’s increasing trust in the former Florida senator, officials said.
Trump said on Thursday that his national security adviser Mike Waltz would move on to become UN ambassador, weeks after Waltz added a journalist from The Atlantic to a Signal chat where top officials were discussing military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
In his place, Trump named Rubio as his top national security aide on an interim basis, the latest instance of the president turning to the man he once disparaged as Little Marco and labeled a con artist to take on crucial tasks in his administration.
Rubio will lead the council that coordinates the administration’s national security actions around the world, although Trump did not indicate when a permanent replacement would be named.
The reshuffle comes amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine, restore a failed ceasefire in Gaza and conduct complex nuclear talks with Iran, all while managing the diplomatic fallout from Trump’s trade war with China.
A senior US official said Rubio has built trust with Trump by carrying out whatever tasks Trump hands to him. “He’s done everything that Trump has asked him to do,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “Why wouldn’t you trust him?”
NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters that Rubio had implemented Trump’s America First agenda and was “well qualified” to oversee the council.
‘He gets it solved’
Early on, Rubio was sent to Panama to put Trump’s promise to “take back” the Panama Canal in more diplomatic terms. In March, after an Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump dispatched Rubio to Saudi Arabia, where he helped bring his effort toward peace between Ukraine and Russia back on track.
Rubio has also played a leading role in Trump’s controversial crackdown on migration to the United States, securing an agreement to send alleged gang members to a high-security prison in El Salvador, and revoking thousands of student visas, in many cases after the students took part in anti-Israel protests.
Above all, Rubio has vociferously argued for Trump’s agenda, even when it clashed with his own previous positions. As a US Senator, Rubio championed foreign assistance around the world. Under Trump, Rubio has overseen the dismantling of Washington’s main aid agency, and proudly defended the decision to do so.
At a Rose Garden event on Thursday, Trump thanked Rubio for his “unbelievable” work. “When I have a problem, I call up Marco,” Trump said. “He gets it solved.”
It is not unprecedented for one official to hold multiple roles at the same time. Henry Kissinger served as both Secretary of State and national security adviser in the 1970s.
But Rubio’s current workload raises questions over how he would manage multiple briefs. In addition to the role of US top diplomat, Rubio serves as the administrator of the US Agency for International Development and the acting archivist of the United States, an office that oversees the preservation of government records.
“Either one of these jobs, done correctly, requires a super-human level of dedication, focus, and energy,” said a State Department official, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. “Even with the best of intentions, I don’t see how you can do both jobs at once without neglecting responsibilities that cannot easily be delegated.”
Tammy Bruce, Rubio’s spokesperson at the State Department, said that Rubio has people around him to help him handle the two roles. “If anybody can do it... it will be Marco Rubio.”
Some major foreign policy issues remain concentrated in a tight circle, with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff leading talks with Russia, the Iran nuclear negotiations, and Israel’s war in Gaza. “The president has assembled an incredibly talented team that is fully committed to putting
America and Americans first,” the State Department said in an emailed response to a request for comment. “Secretary Rubio looks forward serving as his interim National Security Adviser while ensuring the mission critical work at the State Department continues uninterrupted.”
Trump and Rubio once traded barbs
Rubio and Trump clashed during the hard-fought campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. They exchanged barbs on the debate stage, with Trump giving Rubio the moniker Little Marco, and calling him a “con artist” for missing votes in the Senate. Rubio, who also accused Trump of being a “con man,” mocked Trump for supposedly having small hands. Rubio has said those comments were made in the context of a competitive primary, comparing himself to a boxer punching an opponent in the ring. “Doesn’t mean you hate the guy, but we were in a competition for the same job,” Rubio told CNN.
After Trump took office in 2017, tensions eased as Rubio, who is Cuban American, played a key role advising on Venezuela and Cuba policy. Rubio was a driving force behind-the-scenes in helping to craft Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, including the imposition of sanctions against the OPEC member’s vital energy sector, and in the sharp reversal of former President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba.
A senior State Department official who requested anonymity attributed Trump’s growing reliance on Rubio to a history of “
working collaboratively together, building a professional and personal relationship.”
Long a staunch advocate of traditional Republican foreign policy positions including strong support for Ukraine, allegiance to NATO, and a hawkish view of China and its human rights record, Rubio has increasingly aligned himself with Trump’s America First message.
At the State Department, Rubio has shut down an office that worked on countering Russian and Chinese misinformation, accusing it of targeting conservatives. He has worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut aid and other programs he supported as a senator, and initiated a major overhaul that would shutter offices dealing with human rights and war crimes.
Immigration purge
Rubio used State Department powers to revoke the permission of foreign students to study in the US, including a Turkish student who wrote an op-ed criticizing Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a visit to El Salvador in February, Spanish-speaker Rubio reached an agreement with President Nayib Bukele that led to hundreds of men being sent to the country on military planes, even as US courts sought to pause the deportations. Those deported included Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration admitted his deportation to his native El Salvador, despite a court order, was a mistake.
At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rubio, seated beside Trump, said the judiciary could not force the administration to try to return Abrego Garcia.
“The conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge,” Rubio told reporters.
CIA and other spy agencies set to shrink workforce under Trump administration plan
- The administration plans to reduce the CIA workforce by 1,200 over several years, and cut thousands of positions at the NSA and other intelligence agencies
WASHINGTON: The White House plans to cut staffing at the CIA and other intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, Trump administration officials told members of Congress, The Washington Post reported Friday.
A person familiar with the plan but not authorized to discuss it publicly confirmed the changes to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The administration plans to reduce the CIA workforce by 1,200 over several years, and cut thousands of positions at the NSA and other intelligence agencies. The Post reported that the reductions at the CIA include several hundred people who have already opted for early retirement. The rest of the cuts would be achieved partly through reduced hirings and would not likely necessitate layoffs.
In response to questions about the reductions, the CIA issued a statement saying CIA Director John Ratcliffe is working to align the agency with Trump’s national security priorities.
“These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position CIA to deliver on its mission,” the agency wrote in the statement.
A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Gabbard’s office oversees and coordinates the work of 18 agencies that collect and analyze intelligence.
The CIA and NSA have already offered voluntary resignations to some employees. The CIA also has said it plans to lay off an unknown number of recently hired employees.
The new administration has also eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs at intelligence agencies, though a judge has temporarily blocked efforts to fire 19 employees working on DEI programs who challenged their terminations.
Trump also abruptly fired the general who led the NSA and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command.
Ratcliffe has vowed to overhaul the CIA and said he wants to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China.
Trump’s tariffs bite at quiet US ports
- The Port of Long Beach says for the entire month of May it is expecting a 30 percent drop in imports
SAN PEDRO: At the Port of Los Angeles, the frenetic choreography of cranes unloading containers from Asia has slowed to a tiptoe, and the noise of the busiest docks in the US is quieting.
“You could hear a pin drop, it’s very unusual,” Port Director Gene Seroka told AFP.
By this unofficial barometer, the American economy faces slowdown under US President Donald Trump amid his trade war with China.
Along with the next-door Port of Long Beach, the area represents the biggest gateway in the United States for goods from China and the rest of Asia.
That has made it among the first victims to a burgeoning crisis threatening to disrupt the lives of millions of Americans.
Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs — and the retaliation launched by other countries — has cowed importers, whose usual orders for furniture, toys, and clothing have dwindled.
For the week of May 4, the Port of Los Angeles will receive up to 35 percent less cargo compared with the same period last year, Seroka said.
The Port of Long Beach says for the entire month of May it is expecting a 30 percent drop in imports.
Dozens of ships have canceled their voyages to these ports.
“Many retailers and manufacturers alike have hit the pause button, stopping all shipments from China,” said Seroka.
The Asian manufacturing giant is the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs, with levies as high as 145 percent on some goods. Sales of Chinese goods to the US last year totaled more than $500 billion, according to Beijing.
And while sales may not be going up this year, prices undoubtedly will.
“Effectively, the cost of a product made in China now is two and a half times more expensive than it was just last month,” said Seroka.
Trump last month announced a range of differing tariffs against nearly all countries in the world — including an island populated mostly by penguins — using a formula that baffled economists.
He reversed course a few days later and left a blanket 10 percent rate against most of the planet.
That extra cost, which is paid by the importer of a product, not by the seller, will affect trade across the United States.
“This is not just a West Coast issue,” warned Long Beach Port Director Mario Cordero.
“It affects every port, whether it’s in the East or in the Gulf” of Mexico, which Trump has decreed should be known as the Gulf of America.
At the start of the year, Long Beach and Los Angeles saw American companies scurry to get ahead of tariffs that Trump promised on the campaign trail.
Cargo volumes surged as they tried to build up as much untaxed inventory as possible.
But as the tariffs begin to bite, they will undoubtedly hold buying to eat into that inventory.
Without a reversal from the White House that would re-open the trade spigot, that could mean shortages that consumers will start to notice, and soon, according to Seroka.
“American importers, especially in the retail sector, are telling me that they have about five to seven weeks of normal inventory on hand today,” he said.
“If this trade dispute goes on for any length of time, we’ll likely see fewer selections on store shelves and online buying platforms.
“The impact on American consumers will be less choice and higher prices,” he said.
“The American consumer is going to get hit right in the wallet.”
For Antonio Montalbo, one of the 900,000 logistics workers in Southern California, the ordeal has already begun.
As the owner of a small trucking company, he needs to replace the starter on one of his vehicles; the part, made in China, now costs twice as much.
Trump has “created a hostile environment at the port for the drivers,” says the 37-year-old.
“We’re angry at Donald Trump. He needs to go check out the country a little bit, because he has a lot of angry truck drivers.
“It seems like he doesn’t care about the public or the working class.”
Between skyrocketing maintenance costs and the fall-off in work, he estimates he could be laying off staff within six months.
Montalbo says he voted for Trump last November because he was fed up with inflation, and trusted him to fix the economy.
“I thought that he was a businessman.
“Now we have something worse than inflation, called tariffs.”
