President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its aid programs worldwide have been “devastating.”, Reuters reported.

Speaking beside South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a White House visit, Trump was asked about his cutting most foreign aid by a reporter who said the decision had significant impacts in Africa.

“It’s devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“I’ve talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and we’ve spent a lot. And it’s a big – it’s a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.”

The State Department, which manages USAID, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The administration has repeatedly defended the cuts, saying they were focused on wasted funds. The gutting of the agency, largely overseen by South Africa-born businessman Elon Musk, is the subject of several federal lawsuits, read the report.

The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data.

The U.S. spent half a billion dollars on South African aid in 2023, mostly on healthcare, the most recent data shows. Most of that funding has been withdrawn, though it is unclear exactly how much.

The cuts have had an effect on the country’s response to the HIV epidemic. South Africa has the world’s highest burden of HIV, with about 8 million people – one in five adults – living with the virus, Reuters reported.

Washington was funding 17% of the country’s HIV budget before the cuts. In the months since, testing and monitoring of HIV patients across South Africa has decreased, Reuters has reported.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome missile defense shield and named a Space Force general to head the ambitious program aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia, Reuters reported.

The program, first ordered by Trump in January, aims to create a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles.

Trump told a White House press conference that U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein would be the lead program manager for an effort widely viewed as the keystone to Trump’s military planning.

Golden Dome will “protect our homeland,” Trump said, adding that Canada had said it wanted to be part of it.

In a statement, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and his ministers were discussing a new security and economic relationship with their American counterparts.

“These discussions naturally include strengthening NORAD and related initiatives such as the Golden Dome,” it added.

Trump said the defense shield, which would cost some $175 billion, should be operational by the end of his term in January 2029, but industry experts were less certain of that timeframe and the cost.

“Ronald Reagan wanted it many years ago, but they didn’t have the technology,” Trump said, referring to the space-based missile defense system, popularly called “Star Wars”, that Reagan proposed.

The Golden Dome program faces both political scrutiny and funding uncertainty.

“The new datapoint is the $175 billion, but the question remains, over what period of time. It’s probably 10 years,” said Tom Karako of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Silicon Valley and U.S. software expertise can be leveraged to bring advances, while also using existing missile defense systems, he added.

This month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Golden Dome could cost as much as $831 billion over two decades, read the report.

Democratic lawmakers have voiced concern about the procurement process and involvement of Trump ally Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has emerged as a frontrunner alongside Palantir (PLTR.O), and Anduril to build key components of the system.

“The new autonomous space-age defense ecosystem is more about Silicon Valley than it is about ‘big metal,’” Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said at the White House event.

“So what’s exciting about this is it makes it available to everybody to participate, to compete.”

“Big metal” refers to legacy defense contractors.

The Golden Dome idea was inspired by Israel’s land-based Iron Dome defense shield that protects it from missiles and rockets.

Trump’s Golden Dome is much more extensive, including a massive array of surveillance satellites and a separate fleet of attacking satellites that would shoot down offensive missiles soon after lift-off, Reuters reported.

Tuesday’s announcement kicks off the Pentagon’s effort to test and ultimately buy the missiles, systems, sensors and satellites that will constitute Golden Dome.

Trump said Alaska would be a big part of the program, while Florida, Georgia and Indiana would also benefit.

Many of the early systems are expected to come from existing production lines. Attendees at the press conference named L3Harris Technologies (LHX.N), Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), and RTX Corp (RTX.N), as potential contractors for the massive project.

L3 has invested $150 million in building out its new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it makes the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites that are part of a Pentagon effort to better detect and track hypersonic weapons with space-based sensors and could be adapted for Golden Dome.

Golden Dome’s funding remains uncertain. Republican lawmakers have proposed a $25-billion initial investment for Golden Dome as part of a broader $150-billion defense package, but this funding is tied to a contentious reconciliation bill that faces significant hurdles in Congress.

“Unless reconciliation passes, the funds for Golden Dome may not materialize,” said an industry executive following the program, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This puts the entire project timeline in jeopardy.”

Donald Trump said after his call on Monday with President Vladimir Putin that Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations for a ceasefire, but the Kremlin said the process would take time and the U.S. president indicated he was not ready to join Europe with fresh sanctions to pressure Moscow.

In a social media post, Trump said he relayed the plan to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as well as the leaders of the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Finland in a group call following his session with the Russian leader.

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said, adding later at the White House that he thought “some progress is being made.”

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv after the two sides met in Turkey last week for their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022. But after the Monday call he said only that efforts were “generally on the right track”.

“We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord,” Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

While the indications that Ukraine and Russia will continue direct contacts speak of progress after more than three years of the war, the Monday flurry of talks again failed to deliver on expectations for a major breakthrough.

European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on his call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an X post late on Monday.

Trump did not appear ready to follow that move. Asked why he had not imposed fresh sanctions to push Moscow into a peace deal as he had threatened, Trump told reporters: “Well because I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you can also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen.”

Trump said there were “some big egos involved.” Without progress, “I’m just going to back away,” he said, repeating a warning that he could abandon the process. “This is not my war.”

European leaders and Ukraine have demanded Russia agree to a ceasefire immediately, and Trump has focused on getting Putin to commit to a 30-day truce. Putin has resisted this, insisting that conditions be met first.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Trump and Putin did not discuss a timeline for a ceasefire but did discuss trading nine Russians for nine Americans in a prisoner swap. He said the U.S. leader called prospects for ties between Moscow and Washington “impressive.”

Russian state news agencies cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Moscow and Kyiv faced “complex contacts” to develop a unified text of a peace and ceasefire memorandum.

“There are no deadlines and there cannot be any. It is clear that everyone wants to do this as quickly as possible, but, of course, the devil is in the details,” the RIA agency quoted him as saying.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said on X the call with Trump was “undoubtedly a win for Putin.”

The Russian leader “deflected the call for an … immediate ceasefire and instead can continue military operations at the same time as he puts pressure on at the negotiating table,” he said.

After speaking with Trump, Zelenskiy said Kyiv and its partners might seek a high-level meeting among Ukraine, Russia, the United States, European Union countries and Britain as part of a push to end the war.

“Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results,” Zelenskiy said on X.

He said that this could be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland. It was not immediately clear if this would be part of the negotiations Trump said would start immediately.

Trump said Pope Leo had expressed interest in hosting the negotiations at the Vatican. The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kremlin’s Peskov said Putin and Trump discussed direct contacts between the Russian leader and Zelenskiy. Moscow also welcomed the Vatican’s proposal, but no decision had been made on a place for “possible future contacts,” he added.

One person familiar with Trump’s call with the Ukrainian and European leaders said participants were “shocked” that Trump did not want to push Putin with sanctions.

In a post on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said only that the conversation with Trump was “good” and it was “important that the U.S. stays engaged.”

Ukraine and its supporters have accused Russia of failing to negotiate in good faith, doing the minimum needed to keep Trump from applying new pressure on its economy.

If Trump were to impose new sanctions, it would be a milestone moment given that he has appeared sympathetic towards Russia and torn up the pro-Ukraine policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Prodded by Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since 2022, but the talks failed to broker a truce. Hopes faded after Putin spurned Zelenskiy’s proposal to meet face to face there.

Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm on his conditions for ending the war, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims.

He said the memorandum Russia and Ukraine would work on about a future peace accord would define “a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement.”

“The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”