The USAID paradox: Saviour or self-serving bureaucracy?

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing US foreign aid for 90 days, the move was framed as a “review” to align aid with “American interests” and purge programs deemed antithetical to “American values”. 

For USAID—the $42-billion-a-year agency that has shaped global development since 1961—this was an existential blow.