United States President Donald Trump has sought to cut another $5bn in foreign aid already approved by Congress.
The move is the latest effort by Trump to gut the funding the US provides to humanitarian projects and international organisations. It is also the latest attempt to test the limits of Trump’s presidential power.
While Trump had previously obtained congressional approval to cancel $9bn in foreign aid and public media funding in legislation passed in July, the latest move seeks to use an obscure tactic to bypass the legislative branch entirely.
Under the US Constitution, Congress controls federal spending. But in a letter posted online late Thursday, Trump notified House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that he planned to unilaterally withhold the $4.9bn in approved foreign spending.
The tactic, known as a “pocket rescission”, would see Trump invoke a law that allows him to pause the spending for 45 days. That would, in turn, take the funding beyond the end of the September 30 fiscal year, causing it to expire.
The White House has said the tactic was last used in 1977, more than 50 years ago.
A court document filed on Friday said the money was earmarked for foreign aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations, and so-called “democracy promotion” efforts overseas.
Most of it was meant to be overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Trump has largely dismantled and reorganised under US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
‘Triage of human survival’
The move comes as the United Nations and aid organisations have increasingly warned of the devastating fallout of US cuts.
In June, the United Nations announced sweeping programme shrinkages, amid what the humanitarian office described as “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector”.
At the time, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the cuts meant the humanitarian community has been “forced into a triage of human survival”. In July, the UN also predicted a surge in HIV/AIDS deaths by 2029 due to the funding withdrawals.
The knock-on effects have been felt sharply in regions across the world, particularly in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
In July, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, reported that at least 652 malnourished children had died at its facilities in northern Nigeria in the first half of 2025 due to a lack of timely care.
Earlier this week, Save the Children warned that Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan were expected to run out of so-called “ready-to-use therapeutic food” (RUTF) over the next three months.
Meanwhile, at least one Republican lawmaker has challenged Trump’s move as an illegal overreach of presidential power.
“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process,” Senator Susan Collins said in a statement.
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