US foreign aid by country 2022 – Public Domain

Among the Trump administration’s many disturbing shifts in foreign policy, one of its more shameful moves has been to use foreign aid as a tool for advancing U.S. national power.

Rather than claiming that foreign aid stems from a genuine concern for the well-being of humanity, as previous administrations have done, the Trump administration has determined that U.S. assistance should be used to increase the power of the United States, if it is to be used at all.

“Foreign aid is not charity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this year. “It exists for the purpose of advancing the national interest of the United States.”

U.S. Foreign Aid

For decades, the United States has been a major donor of foreign aid. Organizations such as the State Department and the recently dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development have funded programs in many areas, including humanitarian assistance, economic development, democracy promotion, and security assistance.

In fiscal year 2022, the United States committed more than $70 billion in foreign aid to an estimated 180 countries and territories worldwide, amounting to one percent of the federal government’s total budget. The top recipients were Ukraine and Israel, with each country receiving billions in U.S. support.

Recent polling indicates that the U.S. public is lukewarm about military assistance but is highly supportive of humanitarian aid. Large majorities of Americans believe the United States should provide people in developing countries with food, clothing, and medicine.

Officials in Washington have often characterized the United States as the most generous country in the world, but there are reasons to doubt their claims. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that U.S. development assistance, which does lead other countries overall, ranks far lower when taking into account the total wealth of the United States.

In 2024, for instance, the United States did not spend 0.7 percent of its gross national income on development assistance, an

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