US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media on his military airplane as he flies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 10, 2025. Rubio arrived in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah ahead of the talks with Ukrainian officials expected on March 11, leading a delegation including Mike Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff James Meyers 10:23 AM – Monday, March 10, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that 83% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programs are set to be canceled.
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After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
“After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” Rubio wrote on the social platform X.
Rubio said there’s over 5,200 contracts that have been canceled that would have cost upwards of “tens of billions” of dollars. He also described those contracts as not serving the U.S. and, in some cases, causing trouble to national interests.
“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18 percent of programs we are keeping (approximately 1,000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department,” Rubio said.
The secretary thanked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for working “very long hours” to achieve a new reform on USAID.
Elon Musk replied on X that it was a “tough, but necessary” decision.
“Good working with you,” he said. “The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept. of State.”
Tough, but necessary. Good working with you.
The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State.
Meanwhile, Musk and Rubio reportedly clashed last week at a Cabinet meeting over cuts at the State Department. However, President Donald Trump said both of them would have leadership over cuts they are administering.
Musk and Rubio met with Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday after the clash, and appeared to show they have begun to resolve their differences.
Contract terminations for USAID, announced earlier this month, will end grants for HIV treatments and prevention,, polio, malaria, and other diseases.
As the Trump administration has begun to cut back with USAID, it has also caused major lawsuits to be filed against the administration. In an emergency ruling last week, the Supreme Court refused to halt another judge’s decision that ordered the administration to release the $2 billion in foreign aid payments already owed to other countries through existing contracts.
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