OPINION:
Among the highly debated executive orders President Trump has signed since beginning his second term, the decision to halt $1.7 billion in unauthorized foreign aid payments for 90 days is perhaps the most encouraging (“Trump says Medicaid, Social Security won’t be affected by planned grant freeze,” Web, Jan. 29). The order states that the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy” caters to programs that don’t serve the interest of the United States and in some cases are antithetical to American values.
Bangladesh is a large recipient of U.S. aid dollars. In 2022, it received $5.12 billion in official development assistance, according to World Bank data. The U.S. Agency for International Development disbursed $469 million to Bangladesh in 2022. The failed policies of the Biden State Department are a major cause of the instability and broken order the Bangladesh is experiencing now.
Trump’s executive order put it best: In many cases, the programs funded by our foreign aid are a threat to world peace. The president and his State Department will take adequate time to reevaluate all the programs for which American taxpayer dollars are being used to ensure that we are promoting American values and interests, not the values and interests of the deep-state “swamp.”
ANWAR SHADAT JIHAN
Wichita, Kansas
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