The Trump administration’s moves to dismantle the U.S. agency that helps to fight starvation and poverty overseas has stoked fears that America will lose its standing on the world stage as rival powers rush to fill the void.

Concerns are growing in Washington that temporarily halting assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development “opens up a window for China and Russia,” George Ingram, a former senior USAID official, told NBC News in a telephone interview Thursday. 

He was one of several experts to caution that the decision would lead to American influence waning in Africa, South America and Asia where it addresses a range of needs from health care to clean water, distributing aid to nongovernmental organizations, aid agencies and nonprofits. USAID has also provided millions of dollars in military aid to Israel and Ukraine.

“Nobody anticipated” that Trump would suspend most foreign aid “and then decapitate USAID of its personnel,” said Ingram, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

But on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order halting foreign aid funding for at least 90 days so his administration could review the program’s compatibility with his “America First” policy.  

Since then, hundreds of USAID employees and contractors have been fired or furloughed and most foreign assistance has come to a standstill; as of Monday, USAID’s website no longer loads on the web, resulting in a message that its server IP address cannot be found.

Earlier Monday, the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, dubbed a “special government employee” by the White House, said that the plan was to shut USAID down.  “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair,” he said. “We’re shutting it down.”

The billionaire appointed by Trump to run the Department of Government Efficiency, said that he had spoken in detail about USAID with the president, who “agreed we should shut it down.”

“I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” Trump responded, “Yes,” Musk added.

Asked Monday about whether it would take an act of Congress to abolish USAID, Trump said: “I don’t know, I don’t think so … we just want to do the right thing.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Monday that he was now the acting director of USAID and that he had tapped Pete Marocco, director of foreign assistance at the State Department, to begin reviewing all the work done by USAID. He also warned that certain projects or programs might be suspended or eliminated.

The Trump administration plan was not “about ending the programs that USAID does, per se,” he said. But Marocco’s review could lead to the “suspension or elimination of programs, projects or activities; closing or suspending missions or post; closing, reorganizing, downsizing, or renaming establishments, organizations, bureaus, centers, or offices; reducing the size of the workforce at such entities and contracting out or privatizing functions or activities performed by federal employees,” Rubio added.

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Rubio said: “This is not about getting rid of foreign aid.  There are things that we do through USAID that we should continue to do, that makes sense.  And we’ll have to decide is that better through the State Department, or is that better through something, a reformed USAID?”

But the freeze on funding was already “having a direct effect on people whose lives are already vulnerable,” Peter Taylor, director of the Institute of Development Studies, said in a telephone interview Thursday. In one case a workshop on sanitation programming was immediately halted, he added. 

A review by the Congressional Research Service last month found that USAID provided assistance to around 130 countries with Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia and South Sudan among the top 10 recipients. But top of the list was Ukraine which has been at war with Russia for almost three years, since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of the country. 

It has also provided millions of dollars in military aid to Israel, while providing humanitarian help to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s military offensive in the enclave. 

Despite the freeze on funding, NBC News reported last month that Rubio issued a waiver for foreign military financing for both Israel and Egypt. A waiver was also approved for “emergency food assistance and administrative expenses, including salaries, necessary to administer such assistance.”

In Fiscal Year 2023, the U.S. dedicated more than $44.6 billion on international development worldwide, according to USAID. But that represents less than 1% of its budget for foreign assistance, a smaller overall share than some other countries.

‘America’s enemies will rejoice’

Founded as an independent agency in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, USAID was designed to counter the influence of the then-Soviet Union during the Cold War and to run various foreign assistance programs, based on the idea that American security was tied to stability and economic advancements in other nations.

Since then, foreign aid has been widely viewed as a cornerstone of soft power, a term popularized in the 1980s by U.S. political scientist Joseph Nye to describe the ability to influence others to deliver desired outcomes. 

The decision to suspend assistance without any warning will already “have a significant impact,” Ingram said, adding it would “do serious damage to the trust that the U.S. has built up over the years in many countries carrying out a foreign aid program that is dependable and is seen as working in the interests of those countries.”

Michael Schiffer, who served as the assistant administrator of the USAID Bureau for Asia from 2022 until January, was more blunt in his assessment in an opinion piece published on the online forum Just Security.   

“The Trump administration has just put America last, while handing a gift to our biggest adversaries, notably China,” he wrote. “America’s alliances will suffer. U.S. partners will be at risk. And America’s enemies will rejoice,” he said.

U.S. national security could “erode,” with abrupt changes to development programs risking instability in countries around the world, potentially influencing extremism and deepening migration crises, he added. 

Some of Trump’s allies have offered similar warnings.

During the Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing for  Russell Vought, Trump’s pick for budget chief, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. warned last month of the importance of soft power as a “critical component of defending America and our values.”

“If you don’t get involved in the world and you don’t have programs in Africa where China’s trying to buy the whole continent, we’re making a mistake,” he said. “The concept of soft power means a lot to me — and that’s coming from a pretty hawkish guy.”