Trump Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid Still in Place, Despite Administration Claims — ProPublica

"A chaotic, unexplained and abrupt pause with no guidance has left all our partners around the world high and dry and America looking like a severely unreliable actor to do business with," a USAID official told ProPublica, adding that other countries will now have good reason to look to China or Russia for the help they're no longer getting from the U.S. 

"There's nothing that was left untouched."… The dire international situation has been exacerbated by upheaval in Washington. This week, the Trump administration furloughed 500 support staff contractors from USAID's humanitarian assistance bureau, about 40% of the unit, and fired 400 more from the global health bureau. Those workers were told to stop working and "please head home." 

The remaining officials in Washington are now attempting to navigate a confounding waiver process and get lifesaving programs back online. Officials and diplomats told ProPublica that Trump's new political appointees have not consulted USAID's longtime humanitarian experts when crafting the new policies. As a result, career civil servants said they are struggling to understand the policy or how to carry it out… 

"Like a Russian nesting doll of fuck-ups," said Jeremy Konyndyk, who ran some of USAID's largest programs under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. "It's just astonishing."

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-state-department-usaid-humanitarian-aid-freeze-ukraine-gaza-sudan