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John Hudson
A national security reporter specializing in the state department and diplomacy.
THE UNITED NATIONS – President Trump relaunched Tuesday one of his favorite talking points during a speech at the US General Assembly, calling for the end of foreign aid to countries that do not respect the United States .
"Few give us anything, which is why we are looking hard at US foreign assistance," Trump told world leaders in New York. ". . . In the future, we will only give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, we are our friends.
The populist ultimatum has been a frequent applause at Trump's rallies and speeches since the early days of his presidential campaign. But it has become much more difficult to make it a real policy, say US officials familiar with internal debates before Trump's US speech.
For several weeks, a senior National Security Council official, Kevin Harrington, conducted a study of US aid policy to put Trump's "America First" mantra into practice and adjust priorities for foreign aid. in the budget for 2020.
In doing so, he faced stiff resistance from officials at the Pentagon, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development who said his proposals were counterproductive and contradictory and could give way. influence to China. the meetings.
Proposals include the revocation of assistance to countries that do not vote with the United States at the United Nations and those that have developed strong financial ties with China, and provide loans to countries instead of grants, have declared the conditions of anonymity. discuss internal deliberations.
[At U.N., Trump rejects constraints imposed by other nations]
The disagreements culminated in a meeting of the "committee of deputies" this month, during which officials of US agencies and departments failed to reach a consensus, referring the review of foreign aid to a Policy Coordinating Committee.
"Everyone agrees that foreign aid needs to be reformed, but the tactics Kevin Harrington has traced have very little support in the inter-agency," said a senior US official who knows the meetings well.
The White House and the State Department declined to comment. Harrington has not responded to requests for comment.
One of the main tensions in the foreign aid review has been to balance two main priorities: to reserve US financial aid for US "friends" while addressing China's increasing weight in developing countries. ports, roads, railways, bridges and power grids. Beijing's support to the cash-strapped governments has been linked to favorable conditions for the extraction of natural resources or votes against resolutions backed by Western countries that criticize China's human rights.
Trump was particularly interested in offering loans instead of grants, said a senior US official. The president frequently asks councilors what the United States gets in exchange for help and is convinced that US money will pay off the debts that other countries owe to the Chinese, they said.
The challenge, according to some officials, is that the United States may lose its influence on China if it only works with countries that are apparently pro-American.
"They seem to insinuate that we are trying to counter China, and in the same breath, Kevin implies that we should simply retreat to all the places that do not vote with us all the time," said the top US official. "I do not know what it means to counter China and give it territory."
With regard to China, republican and democratic administrations have struggled to counter Beijing's "checkbook diplomacy," which is known to ignore the human rights practices of other governments in the pursuit of transactional relations. In July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new $ 113 million program for investments in Asia focused on technology, energy and infrastructure. Although supposed to serve as a counterbalance to China's belt and road investment project, it represents only a tiny fraction of the money Beijing provides to developing countries.
To offset this imbalance, senior US officials have attempted to argue that "predatory" Chinese lending practices left developing countries worse off than US development aid.
"It offers easy money, it offers quick projects. It offers availability and responsiveness in the sense of being able to act quickly. But that also guarantees the conditions and the indebtedness that I would essentially support on the assumption of the future of a country, "said USAID Administrator Mark Green in a speech in June at the Brookings Institution.
The review is one of the most important efforts associated with Harrington, a Washington outsider and long-time partner of Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel who co-founded PayPal and made a massive donation to the presidential campaign of Trump.
As the review progressed, Trump staff tried to influence the debate in different ways. White House officials, who support significant foreign aid, have brought people such as Bill Gates to the Oval Office, who have tried to convince Trump that foreign aid is good for foreign interests and commercial interests.
Trump has repeatedly argued that rich countries in the Middle East should help their neighbors instead of depending on the United States. The president is expected to file complaints about foreign aid to world leaders this week, a senior White House official said.
Historically, American aid has never been totally separated from political considerations, but the direct connection with loyalty remains controversial even among conservative scholars.
"Linking humanitarian aid and security assistance to the priorities of US policy would undermine the goals and effectiveness of this aid," said Brett Schaefer, Principal Investigator at the Heritage Foundation.
He doubted, however, that the president's rhetoric would become an administration policy, which Congress would also have to approve. In January, Trump called on lawmakers to enact laws to ensure that US foreign aid funds "are only granted to America's friends". The call came to nothing and Republican congressional officials have not even heard of foreign aid.
"From what I understand, the discussions on this policy in the administration might consider the US vote as an" important factor, but not the only factor, in the distribution of help, "Schaefer said.
For aid groups, the question of how to classify countries that are loyal and those that are not. "In all African countries, there is an anti-American sentiment," said Paul O'Brien, vice president of policy and advocacy at Oxfam America. "The question is this: by doing the right things in the most effective way, can we get more people to understand what America represents?"
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