The United States government has declared that forthcoming foreign aid will be allocated predominantly through direct agreements with national governments, instead of being funneled through nongovernmental organizations and other intermediaries.
The alteration, integrated into the administration’s America First Global Health Strategy, signifies a significant deviation from longstanding practices and coincides with the gradual dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Under the revised framework, Washington will engage in multiyear bilateral agreements with recipient nations, mandating co-investment from those governments and establishing performance metrics aligned with U.S. priorities.
These agreements aim to transition aid distribution from grants and contracts managed by NGOs to direct government-to-government interactions, which U.S. officials assert will improve accountability, minimize waste, and better align assistance with American strategic interests.
The announcement comes after the official dissolution of USAID, with its residual functions integrated into the State Department following a review and extensive program reductions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the organizational restructuring by asserting that the agency had deviated from its foundational mission and that a new framework was essential to enable partner governments to achieve sustainable growth.
Rubio, laying out the rationale for the pivot, said that, “We must keep what is good about our foreign health assistance programs while rapidly fixing what is broken,” framing the approach as one that retains U.S. generosity but “directly benefits the American people and directly promotes our national interest.”
Rubio said Saturday that Cuban leaders should be concerned following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro.
Rubio said the operation and subsequent developments could signal a shift in focus toward Cuba under President Donald Trump’s administration, Fox News reported.
Cuba has long maintained a significant presence in Venezuela, including intelligence agents and security personnel, amid close ties between Havana and Caracas.
Rubio said Venezuela’s intelligence agency was “basically full of Cubans” and that Maduro’s security detail also included Cuban personnel.
“One of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba,” Rubio said during a news conference detailing the operation. “They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint,” he added.
Rubio described Cuba as “a disaster” run by leaders he characterized as incompetent. The Secretary of State has repeatedly labeled Cuba a dictatorship and a failed state.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into custody by U.S. forces during the operation and transported aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
This also comes as a U.S. State Department foreign service officer has been fired after being caught on hidden camera admitting to a secret romantic relationship with the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliate — a connection he failed to disclose to U.S. security officials, according to statements.
The officer, identified as Daniel Choi, was terminated following an internal review ordered by Secretary of State Rubio and approved by President Trump.
The decision came after footage surfaced from an O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) undercover investigation in which Choi acknowledged that his girlfriend’s father was “straight-up Communist Party” and that she “could have been a spy.”
“I defied my government for love,” Choi said in the secretly recorded video published by OMG, in which he discussed knowingly concealing the relationship from State Department officials despite being required to report any close personal contact with foreign nationals.
A State Department spokesperson told reporters that, to their knowledge, this is the first time an officer has been terminated under the authority granted by Executive Order 14211, which President Trump signed earlier this year to strengthen accountability within the diplomatic corps.
The order states that “all officers or employees charged with implementing the foreign policy of the United States must, under Article II, do so under the direction and authority of the President,” adding that “failure to faithfully implement the President’s policy is grounds for professional discipline, including separation.”