Messaging Guidance:

National Security Implications of Trump Spending Freeze & Foreign Aid Halt

 

Background:

Recently, Donald Trump announced a “sweeping freeze on federal spending, which has interrupted programs that promote food safety, combat crime, provide college aid, produce medical research and respond to natural disasters.” Trump’s assault on federal grant and loan recipients was also accompanied by a pause in almost all foreign aid, which “has left counterterrorism training in Somalia, HIV treatment in Uganda, narcotics interdiction in Colombia, prosthetics for refugees from Myanmar, and many more U.S.-funded overseas assistance programs in sudden limbo.” To make matters worse, the Administration reportedly plans to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, a draconian move that would undermine American soft power for years to come. 

Trump’s order freezing federal spending was later rescinded due to widespread backlash over the chaos and confusion it caused. And amid confusion and outrage, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver on the foreign aid pause that “exempted critical humanitarian assistance and life-saving medical work for U.S. aid recipients.” 

But the Administration’s efforts to backpedal have only further fueled chaos and uncertainty around the globe, with countless programs left in limbo as they await clarity from officials in Washington.


Talking Points:

  • Donald Trump is carrying out a chaotic, dangerous, and shortsighted assault on thousands of programs that protect U.S. national security and prosperity.

  • By ordering an immediate freeze on these programs, Trump is putting American lives at risk and causing wide-spread confusion about the status of commonsense initiatives that target terrorists, disrupt transnational criminals, protect Americans’ health and wellbeing, and support other core national security interests of the United States.

  • Trump’s shutdown could have been narrow and specific, targeting programs that his administration had identified as duplicative or inefficient. But instead, Trump chose to enact chaos and risk disaster by halting everything, including critical programs that keep Americans safe from harm.

  • Trump’s funding freeze: 

    • Introduced a temporary halt to salaries paid to the guards of 9,500 ISIS militants detained in Syria and halted services for a 40,000-person detention camp – creating the conditions for a catastrophic prison break of battle-hardened militants and easing the recruitment of the next generation of ISIS fighters. 

    • Opened the door for more illegal narcotics, including fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, by halting programs designed to target transnational criminal organizations and halt drug trafficking – both in the United States and around the globe. Funding for narcotics interdiction in Colombia was paused, relieving pressure on cocaine-funded gangs causing chaos and mass migration in South America. 

    • Paused joint counterterrorism operations with the government in Somalia, including the training of government soldiers charged with battling against terrorists and the protection of warehouses for weapons and munitions in Mogadishu. 

    • Halted dozens of public health programs, including those “meant to fight the spread of AIDS, research cancer causes and detection, and prepare for bioterrorism attacks.”

    • Froze several anti-human trafficking programs around the globe, “raising alarms about its commitment to combating human trafficking.”

  • Trump’s shutdown has clear consequences for American national security – creating opportunities for terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations, undermining America’s image around the world, weakening our alliances, and leaving an opening for China and other adversaries to supplant the U.S. as a more reliable partner.

  • Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we don’t need to wait for our adversaries to weaken or attack us. The president is doing their dirty work for them.

Published: February 2025