President Donald Trump began his second term promising greater accountability for U.S. foreign aid and a commitment to rid the system of waste, fraud, and abuse. More than 200 days into his second term, the president is falling far short of that promise. As Congress returns from its August recess, it has some critical decisions to make on how it will respond, particularly around U.S. foreign assistance.

Garnering little public attention to date, the administration took the legally dubious departure from longstanding practice and chose not to release detailed accounting for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Department of State Congressional Budget Justification (CBJ), a critical set of documents of how the government intends to spend foreign assistance and how it already spent previous funds. This represents the latest example of the mismatch between the Trump administration’s rhetoric and reality and represents a major blow to foreign aid transparency and good governance. It also eliminates the only congressional and public source of country-by-country information on U.S. foreign assistance before it is appropriated, effectively asking that Congress commit billions in taxpayer dollars without any insight into how the executive branch intends to spend the funds.

Such a subjugation of oversight not only undermines key foreign policy safeguards but also belies the administration’s promise of promoting transparency and accountability over U.S. foreign aid.

Read the full article on Middle East Democracy Center

Header image: The White House/Flickr