Little Clarity on Legality of Trump’s Foreign Aid Shutdown One Year After
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It’s been roughly one year since U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly moved to shutter multiple congressionally chartered foreign aid offices, but there is still little clarity on whether his actions were legal under U.S. law—even as much of the damage is now irreversible.
The effort by Trump and his billionaire former advisor Elon Musk to unilaterally dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and fire more than 10,000 employees plus thousands more contractors prompted multiple lawsuits from the impacted employees, contractors, and aid grantees. More lawsuits related to Trump’s push to defund and shutter other smaller offices related to foreign affairs, such as the U.S. Institute of Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, are still ongoing. There are more than half a dozen related lawsuits winding their way through the judicial system.
It’s been roughly one year since U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly moved to shutter multiple congressionally chartered foreign aid offices, but there is still little clarity on whether his actions were legal under U.S. law—even as much of the damage is now irreversible.
The effort by Trump and his billionaire former advisor Elon Musk to unilaterally dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and fire more than 10,000 employees plus thousands more contractors prompted multiple lawsuits from the impacted employees, contractors, and aid grantees. More lawsuits related to Trump’s push to defund and shutter other smaller offices related to foreign affairs, such as the U.S. Institute of Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, are still ongoing. There are more than half a dozen related lawsuits winding their way through the judicial system.
Congress continues to absent itself from the........
