A year after USAID shutdown, Americans still back foreign development aid, poll shows

FILE PHOTO: A person leaves flowers, next to a USAID sign which is covered over, at the agency's headquarters in Washington, US, Feb 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

A year after the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development, most Americans still support foreign aid to provide disaster relief, prevent disease outbreaks and improve security, according to a new poll commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation and released Tuesday.

The poll of 2,022 voters showed Republicans and President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again base were sceptical of foreign aid before getting more details.

Nearly all Americans overestimated by far how much Washington spent on such programmes, with over a third thinking they accounted for 20% of the annual US budget.

When told that foreign aid accounted for just 1% of the US budget before 2025 and briefed on what it accomplished, Americans' support grew to 70% from 54%, the poll showed. Republican support reached 58%, and even MAGA Republicans, defined as those who primarily support Trump over the party, backed aid by 50%, the foundation said.

Trump, who made cutting off foreign aid a cornerstone of his "America First" campaign promises, ordered the closure of USAID when he took office in January 2025.

Well over 10,000 USAID personnel and contractors were fired and thousands of programs were cancelled, throwing into turmoil US-funded aid operations on which millions of the world’s poorest people depended. US foreign aid disbursements dropped to $47 billion in fiscal year 2025 from $72 billion a year earlier, US data shows.

Those cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal last year.

The poll, conducted June 12-16 by Echelon Insights, showed that 78% of those surveyed favoured maintaining or expanding foreign aid outlays.

“This data is a direct rebuttal to anyone who claims Americans have lost their appetite for the world," said John Gans, a former Pentagon speechwriter and project lead at The Rockefeller Foundation.

"One year after USAID’s razing, a majority of Americans don’t just want to ensure federal funding to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and respond to crisis around the world — they see good reason to increase it."

MAGA voters, who started as the most sceptical of any group, showed a 27-point swing toward supporting foreign aid, once they were given more information, the poll showed.

Republicans supported restoring aid to fight the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo by 62% to 24% after getting more data, including experts' view that US funding cuts were a significant factor in the rapid spread of the disease. MAGA voters supported that view by 52% to 34%.

The Trump administration has responded to the widening outbreak and is seeking more than $1.4 billion in new funds from Congress to help fight it, Reuters reported last week.

The poll, taken on Jun 12 to Jun 16, showed that support for foreign aid increased sharply when voters were asked about specific programs, such as disease prevention and peacekeeping, with 80% saying they favoured reforms and adding better safeguards, not cancellation.

Only 12% said foreign aid should be cut across the board regardless of impact.