Washington’s former special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has come out in support of US President Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle USAID, which has provided billions of dollars to help fight poverty and promote development in developing countries around the world.

In a post on X early Tuesday morning, Khalilzad spoke out about the agency and said it has “significant issues and needs an in-depth review and change.”

He said in his post that after his own “very mixed experiences with them as ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq,” he wrote in his book, in 2016, ‘The Envoy’ that in order to enable the strategic use of development programs, USAID should be split.

“The capabilities for emergency humanitarian and disaster relief should be separated from USAID’s development functions,” he said, adding that these functions should be integrated into the political and economic spheres of the US State Department.

“It makes no sense to separate programs to strengthen governance and economic performance in developing countries from the department charged with shaping the overall bilateral relationship,” he stated in his book.

He noted that this change would more readily integrate development activities into US strategy, inject operational capabilities into the Foreign Service, and accelerate the needed change in the State Department’s culture.

“The current practice of relying on U.S. contractor firms to carry out development programs needs to change. In the 1950s and 1960s, USAID, in fact, had a great deal of specialized development expertise in such areas as infrastructure development and agriculture.

“Direct contracting with local firms in host countries would also wean the United States off the least effective of the US contractors, with their exorbitant overhead.”

Chaos in aid sector

Trump’s overhaul of US foreign assistance has led to chaos in the aid and development field, leaving hundreds of contractors in a severe financial crunch with some already having to lay off staff and others facing millions of dollars in unpaid invoices.

Hours after coming into office on January 20, Trump ordered a sweeping review of almost all US foreign aid and tasked billionaire Elon Musk, who has falsely accused USAID of being a “criminal” organization, with scaling down the agency.

Since then, dozens of USAID staff has been put on leave, hundreds of internal contractors have been laid off, while Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)
employees have gutted the agency that is Washington’s primary humanitarian arm, providing billions of dollars worth of aid worldwide.

Blanket stop-work orders that were issued by the State Department have thrown the aid industry into panic, both at home and abroad as the contractors usually front the costs and then bill the US government.

An official at a USAID implementing partner, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution, said the company had to furlough hundreds of US-based staff and were owed over $50 million by the US government in invoices from November and December that are past due.

The official, along with others in a similar predicament, said they might have to go to court over the outstanding balances.

Trust Ruptured

Many of the USAID staff and contractors have expressed shock at how quickly the Trump administration moved to fire people.

In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion of aid worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.

It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

The funding, less than 1% of its total budget, is instrumental in Washington’s effort to build alliances around the world, reinforce its diplomacy and counter the influence of adversaries such as China and Russia in the developing world.

Trump ordered the global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America First” policy.

Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programmes at risk of elimination.

Speaking more broadly about cutting US expenses and fraud, Musk estimated the Trump administration can cut $1-trillion from the US deficit next year.

He asserted, for example, that “professional foreign fraud rings” were stealing vast sums by masquerading as or creating fake digital US citizens.

Musk did not offer any evidence to support his fraud claim or explain how he reached the amount of $1-trillion.