Trump suspends US foreign assistance pending review

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to suspend all US foreign assistance programs for 90 days pending reviews of consistency with his policy.

"All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries," said the executive order, which was signed by Trump in the Oval Office.

However, it did not explicitly put forward how much assistance would initially be affected by the move.

It said the US foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values, adding: "They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries."

Trump was sworn in for a second term on Monday, heralding a major shift in the US government that is widely expected to send shockwaves through American society and the world.