Bottles of generic acetaminophen are seen in a pharmacy in Houston, Texas, on September 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by President Donald Trump began arriving in the nation’s capital on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) ramping up after the White House ordered federal forces to take over the city’s police department and reduce crime in what the president called — without substantiation — a lawless city.

The influx came the morning after Mr. Trump announced he would be activating the guard members and taking over the department. He cited a crime emergency — but referred to the same crime that city officials stress is already falling noticeably. The President holds the legal right to make such moves for at least a month.

Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to work alongside the federal officials Mr. Trump has tasked with overseeing the city’s law enforcement, while insisting the police chief remained in charge of the department and its officers.

“How we got here or what we think about the circumstances — right now we have more police, and we want to make sure we use them,” she told reporters.

The tone was a shift the day before, when Bowser said Mr. Trump’s plan to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and call in the National Guard was not a productive step and argued his perceived state of emergency simply doesn’t match the declining crime numbers. Still, the law gives the federal government more sway over the capital city than in U.S. states, and Bowser said her administration’s ability to push back is limited.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, meanwhile, called the Tuesday morning meeting productive in a social media post and said the Justice Department would “work closely with the D.C. city government” to “make Washington, D.C., safe again.”

While Mr. Trump invokes his plan by saying that “we’re going to take our capital back,” Bowser and the MPD maintain that violent crime overall in Washington has decreased to a 30-year low after a sharp rise in 2023. Carjackings, for example, dropped about 50% in 2024 and are down again this year. More than half of those arrested, however, are juveniles, and the extent of those punishments is a point of contention for the Trump administration.

Bowser, a Democrat, spent much of Mr. Trump’s first term in office openly sparring with the Republican president. She fended off his initial plans for a military parade through the streets and stood in public opposition when he called in a multi-agency flood of federal law enforcement to confront anti-police brutality protesters in summer 2020. She later had the words “Black Lives Matter” painted in giant yellow letters on the street about a block from the White House.

In Mr. Trump’s second term, backed by Republican control of both houses of Congress, Bowser has walked a public tightrope for months, emphasizing common ground with the Trump administration on issues such as the successful effort to bring the NFL’s Washington Commanders back to the District of Columbia.

She watched with open concern for the city streets as Trump finally got his military parade this summer. Her decision to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza earlier this year served as a neat metaphor for just how much the power dynamics between the two executives had evolved.

Now that fraught relationship enters uncharted territory as Trump has followed through on months of what many D.C. officials had quietly hoped were empty threats. The new standoff has cast Bowser in a sympathetic light, even among her longtime critics.

“It’s a power play and we’re an easy target,” said Clinique Chapman, CEO of the D.C. Justice Lab. A frequent critic of Bowser, whom she accuses of “over policing our youth” with the recent expansions of Washington’s youth curfew, Chapman said Trump’s latest move “is not about creating a safer D.C. It’s just about power.”

Bowser contends that all the power resides with Trump and that her administration can do little other than comply and make the best of it. As long as Washington remains a federal enclave with limited autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, she said, it will remain vulnerable to such takeovers.

“We know that access to our democracy is tenuous,” Bowser said. “That is why you have heard me, and many many Washingtonians before me, advocate for full statehood for the District of Columbia.”

Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows the president to take over Washington’s police for up to 30 days during times of emergencies. No president has done so before, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. chapter.

“That should alarm everyone,” she said, “not just in Washington.”

For Mr. Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.

“Let me be crystal clear,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during Mr. Trump’s announcement news conference. “Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today.”

Mr. Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency fits the general pattern of his second term in office. He has declared states of emergency on issues ranging from border protection to economic tariffs, enabling him to essentially rule via executive order. In many cases, he has moved forward while the courts sorted them out.

Bowser’s claims about successfully driving down violent crime rates received backing earlier this year from an unlikely source. Ed Martin, Trump’s original choice for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, issued a press release in April hailing a 25% drop in violent crime rates from the previous year.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the efforts of our ‘Make D.C. Safe Again’ initiative, the District has seen a significant decline in violent crime,” Martin said. “We are proving that strong enforcement, and smart policies can make our communities safer.”

In May, Mr. Trump abandoned his efforts to get Martin confirmed for the post in the face of opposition in Congress. His replacement candidate, former judge and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, was recently confirmed. On Monday, Pirro — standing next to Trump — called his takeover “the step that we need right now to make criminals understand that they are not going to get away with it anymore.”

Published – August 12, 2025 11:55 pm IST

Washington DC:

Days after Tesla started hiring staff in India, signalling its potential entry into the market, US President Donald Trump has said that any potential plans of the EV maker to build a factory in India, to circumvent that country’s tariffs, would be ‘very unfair’.  The US President made the remarks during a joint interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk for Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

President Trump recalled that he called out India’s high duty on cars during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States last week, but agreed to work towards an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs.

During his US visit, PM Modi also met Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has long criticised India for having import tariffs of around 100 per cent on EVs which protect local automakers such as Tata Motors in the world’s third largest auto market, where EV adoption is still at a nascent stage.

Mr Trump said it is “impossible” for Elon Musk to sell a car in India. “Every country in the world takes advantage of us, and they do it with tariffs… It is impossible to sell a car, practically, in, as an example, India,” he said.

However, the Indian government in March unveiled its new EV policy, lowering import taxes substantially to 15 per cent if a carmaker invests at least $500 million and sets up a factory.

President Trump said it would be “unfair” to America if Elon Musk did decide to build a factory there. “Now, if he built the factory in India, that’s okay, but that’s unfair to us. It’s very unfair,” Trump said in the interview.

India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s Reciprocal Tariff Threat

Donald Trump’s plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes US imports have raised the risk of a global trade war with American friends and foes. Under his proposed reciprocal tariff system, the US would impose the same level of tariffs on imports from other countries as those nations levies on American goods.

“If I said 25 per cent, they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’ I don’t say that anymore… because I say, ‘Whatever they charge, we’ll charge.’ And you know what? They stop,” Mr Trump told Fox News on Tuesday while talking about his tariff plans.

Tesla’s India Entry

Elon Musk’s Tesla is expected to enter the Indian market as early as April this year, according to sources. The EV maker has reportedly selected locations for two showrooms in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai and posted job ads for 13 mid-level roles in India. 

However, Tesla does not currently manufacture any vehicles in India.

Tesla has long been rumoured to foray into India’s electric vehicle (EV) market but has faced several hurdles related to localised factory investments, regulations, and high taxes. It has previously lobbied for policy incentives as well as lower import duties.

San Jose:

Following in the footsteps of Panama and Guatemala, Costa Rica also announced on Monday it was willing to receive illegal migrants deported from the United States, who are nationals of other countries. The Central American nation’s presidential office said in a statement that 200 migrants from central Asia and India would be arriving in a commercial flight from the US on Wednesday. 

“The Government of Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the United States in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country,” the Costa Rican president’s office said in a statement, adding that “these are people originating from… Central Asia and India.”

Costa Rica’s Plan

The first set of US deportees will reach Costa Rica on Wednesday aboard a commercial flight, whereupon they will be transported to a Temporary Migrant Care Center near the border with Panama. 

The migrants will then be moved to the countries of their origin.

Costa Rica specified that “the process will be completely financed” by the US government under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Following Panama and Guatemala’s Footsteps

Costa Rica is the third country in Central America to collaborate on repatriating deported migrants from the United States since President Donald Trump assumed office in Washington on January 20. Panama and Guatemala had previously agreed to a similar arrangement when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited on a recent tour of Latin America. 

Panama received its first repatriation flight with 119 migrants aboard last week, originating from China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to Panamanian officials. None have arrived in Guatemala yet.

Latin America is the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants, according to a report by AFP. Many had made dangerous journeys, braving treacherous terrain, wild animals and criminal gangs for a chance at a better life.

Trump, however, took a hard line against undocumented migrants during last year’s US election campaign, describing some as “monsters” and “animals.” On his first day in office last month, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern US border and vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants.

New Delhi:

India may witness some economic hardships amid US President Donald Trump’s push for balancing bilateral trade with threats of reciprocal tariffs, warned Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu. He pointed out that amid Mr Trump’s threats, India will soon need to increase its imports from America to balance the bilateral trade, which could put pressure on New Delhi’s current account deficit unless domestic production ramps up quickly.

“As a slightly oversimplified mental model, India exports software services to America and imports consumer goods from China. The surplus with America is more than matched by the deficit with China,” Mr Vembu said in a pot on X.

“Now India will (have to) import more iPhones, GPUs, LPG, nuclear plants, fighter jets, whiskey and so on from America to balance the bilateral trade,” he added.

He noted that this adjustment could put pressure on India’s current account deficit unless domestic production is ramped up quickly.

“In order not to blow up the current account deficit, India has to find ways to reduce consumer goods imports from China, and that means increasing domestic production. Since this cannot happen overnight, in the short run imported consumer goods prices could go up – that shows up as inflation,” he said, adding that Indian manufacturers have to step up and set up capacity and “acquire the know-how when needed.”

As a slightly oversimplified mental model, India exports software services to America and imports consumer goods from China. The surplus with America is more than matched by the deficit with China.

Now India will (have to) import more iPhones, GPUs, LPG, nuclear plants, fighter…

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) February 15, 2025

India’s Trade With US And China

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s trade surplus with the US has doubled, growing from $17.30 billion in 2019-20 to $35.33 billion in 2023-24, alongside a notable shift in the export basket. While exports of electronic and engineering goods surged, traditional exports such as gems, jewellery and garments remained largely unchanged.

At the same time, India’s trade deficit with China has hit $85.1 billion in the fiscal year 2024, with imports from Beijing witnessing a 9.8 per cent rise year-on-year between April and October 2024. China remains India’s top import source, with imports valued at $65.89 billion during that period.

The numbers underscore a growing economic concern, as exports to China fell to just $8 billion during this period.

Trump’s Threats

Mr Trump on Saturday warned that “America will charge a RECIPROCAL Tariff, meaning, whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them- No more, no less!”

Earlier on Friday, highlighting the trade imbalance between Washington and New Delhi, the US President said that Indian tariffs as high as 70 per cent on American goods such as cars are a “big problem”. He pointed out that US sales of oil and gas will bridge the American trade deficit with India.

“India imposes a 30, 40, 60 and even 70 per cent tariff on so many goods, and in some cases, far more than that. As an example, a 70 per cent tariff on US cars going into India makes it pretty much impossible to sell those cars. Today, the US trade deficit with India is almost $100 billion, and Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed that we will be negotiating to address the long-running disparities,” he said at a press briefing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We want a certain level playing field, which we really think we’re entitled to, and he does also, in fairness. So we’re going to work on that very hard, and we can make up the difference very easily with the deficit, with the sale of oil and gas, LNG, of which we have more than anybody in the world,” Mr Trump added.

Ottawa:

After US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing 25 per cent tariffs on almost everything imported from Canada, outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a reminder to Americans that his country has been at their side in the “darkest hours” — be it Iran hostage crisis and war in Afghanistan, or deadly natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the recent California wildfires. 

Addressing Americans directly from a press conference in Ottawa, Trudeau said he had no choice but to impose countermeasures.

“From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours,” Trudeau said. “We’ve built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen…We’re always there, standing with you.”

Noting that the US and Canada have had differences in the past, Trudeau said that both countries always found a way to get past them. 

“As I’ve said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together,” Trudeau added.

Canada Hits Back

“Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25 per cent tariffs against Can$155 billion ($106 billion) worth of American goods,” he said in a dramatic tone as he warned of a fracture in longstanding Canada-US ties.

The first round of tariffs would target Can$30 billion worth of US goods on Tuesday followed by further tariffs on Can$125 billion worth of products in three weeks.

“We’re certainly not looking to escalate. But we will stand up for Canada, for Canadians, for Canadian jobs,” Trudeau said.

He said the trade conflict will have “real consequences” for Canadians but also for Americans, who he said will suffer due to their President’s actions.

“Tariffs against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities,” the Canadian Prime Minister told US citizens. 

“They will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery store and gas at the pump,” he added.

The tariffs will apply to “everyday items” such as American beer, wine and bourbon as well as fruits, vegetables, consumer appliances, lumber and plastics, he added — “with much, much more.”

Trump’s Taxes

US President Donald Trump earlier announced broad tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, citing a threat from illegal immigration and drugs.

Canadian exports to the United States will face a 25 per cent tariff starting Tuesday, although energy resources from Canada will have a lower 10 per cent levy.

The 9,000-km (5,600-mile) U.S.-Canada border handles over $2.5 billion in trade a day, especially in energy and manufacturing, according to Canadian government data from 2023.

In 2023, Canada exported close to C$550 billion worth of goods and services to the U.S., or more than three-fourths of its total exports. Energy accounted for 30 per cent and manufacturing contributed around 15 per cent to exports south of the border.

Exports to the US account for roughly 17.8 per cent of Canadian gross domestic product and more than 2.4 million jobs in Canada.
 

New Delhi:

A group of Elon Musk’s close associates, including former interns and trusted sidekicks, has taken control of the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency which manages government offices and technology. The team is attempting to use White House security credentials for unusual access to GSA tech, deploying AI software, and restructuring the office to reflect Musk’s vision, according to leaked documents obtained by Wired.

Several people who helped Musk take over Twitter now have key roles at GSA. Nicole Hollander, who was part of Musk’s Twitter transition team, now holds a top government position with access to GSA systems. Her husband, Steve Davis, who also stayed at Twitter HQ, is now an integral member of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Other appointees include Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer, Edward Coristine, a past Neuralink intern, and Ethan Shaotran, a Harvard AI researcher. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has also brought in key figures from Musk’s circle – Amanda Scales, formerly with xAI, is now OPM chief of staff, and ex-Tesla engineer Riccardo Biasini is a senior advisor.

A current GSA employee, speaking anonymously, expressed concern over the shift. “They are acting like this is a takeover of a tech company” rather than an effort to improve government services, the employee said.

Elon Musk’s team aims to cut federal spending by 50 per cent across GSA offices, Wired reports. Internal documents suggest an attempt to use IT credentials from the Executive Office of the President to access GSA systems. A former Biden official warned this could let non-government DOGE members view sensitive contracts and monitor federal workers.

The new leadership is also cutting GSA’s real estate holdings. A whiteboard in a DC office listed $585 million in cuts, 15 regulations removed, and 2,03,000 square feet of office space eliminated. Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian called it the “first step” in revising federal real estate.

Nicole Hollander has requested multiple “resting rooms” for senior GSA staff, similar to the sleeping pods set up at Twitter HQ after Musk’s takeover. A GSA working group recently discussed funding and waivers for these rooms.

Musk’s team is also pushing for AI integration in government operations. Documents show efforts to authorise Google Gemini and Cursor for federal use. A recent meeting with Google covered Telemetry, a software monitoring tool. A-suite engineers have also requested access to a decade’s worth of GSA accounting, vendor payments, and procurement records.

Earlier this month, OPM emailed over two million federal employees, offering “deferred resignations.” This would let them leave for the private sector while receiving full pay and benefits until September 30. A follow-up email confirmed the offer was real.

But the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) warned that Congress may not approve the plan and that funding is uncertain. There are also concerns that payments may not be honoured, given Elon Musk’s history of legal battles over unpaid severance at Twitter.

Washington:

She’s the face of a Trump-supporting Gen Z movement and the youngest White House press secretary in history. Now Karoline Leavitt is stepping up to the podium for the first time.

The 27-year-old is already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.

But it has taken more than a week into Donald Trump’s second term for Leavitt to make her debut before the press in the James S. Brady briefing room at the White House.

It reflects the difficulties that Trump’s spokespeople face to emerge out of the shadow of their limelight-loving boss, with the president already having had several long interactions with the media since returning to power.

“See you at the podium!” Leavitt said on X ahead of the briefing.

Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium.”

‘Wonder woman’

Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist.

Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class.

Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defense of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.

A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform.

An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it.”

Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.

In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticized the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and then-president Joe Biden.

Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled “Wonder Woman.”

Sparring

The White House briefing room will be a different experience, with its rough-and-tumble sparring with journalists.

Since Trump returned to power, she has so far only had a brief encounter with reporters on the driveway outside the West Wing, followed by a single “gaggle” on Air Force One as Trump traveled to California.

Her television appearances have almost exclusively been reserved for Fox News and the conservative Newsmax channel.

But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”

As she steps up to the podium on Tuesday, Leavitt will be seeking to avoid the fate of Trump’s previous spokespeople.

His first, Sean Spicer, was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history.

Three other spokespeople followed during the first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Donald Trump’s White House ordered a pause in all federal grants and loans starting on Tuesday, a sweeping decision that could disrupt education and health care programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and a host of other initiatives that depend on billions of federal dollars.

In a memo on Monday, the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the federal budget, said the money would be put on hold while the Trump administration reviews grants and loans to ensure they are aligned with the president’s priorities, including executive orders he signed last week ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Matthew Vaeth, the acting director, said the use of federal resources for policies at odds with the president’s agenda “is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

The memo said the freeze included any money intended “for foreign aid” and for “nongovernmental organizations,” among other categories.

The White House said the pause would not impact Social Security or Medicare payments or “assistance provided directly to individuals.” That would presumably spare food aid for the poor and disability payments, though it was not clear whether health care programs for veterans and low-income people would be affected.

The OMB memo asserted that the federal government spent nearly $10 trillion in fiscal year 2024, with more than $3 trillion devoted to financial assistance such as grants and loans. But the source of those figures was not clear – the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated government spending in 2024 at a much lower $6.75 trillion.

The memo is the latest directive in the Trump administration’s campaign to dramatically reshape the federal government, the nation’s largest employer.

In a blizzard of executive actions last week, the new president shuttered all diversity programs, imposed a hiring freeze, sent national security officials home, ordered a pause in foreign aid and sought to strip away job protections from thousands of civil servants.

The spending freeze ordered by OMB takes effect at 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) on Tuesday. Agencies have until Feb. 10 to submit detailed information on any programs subject to the suspension.

DEMOCRATS CHALLENGE ‘UNLAWFUL’ MOVE

The federal government provides money to a broad swath of nonprofits, many of which reacted with dismay.

“This order is a potential five-alarm fire for nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve,” Diane Yentel, president & CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, said in a statement. “From pausing research on cures for childhood cancer to halting food assistance, safety from domestic violence, and closing suicide hotlines, the impact of even a short pause in funding could be devastating and cost lives.”

Democrats immediately challenged Trump’s action as unlawful and dangerous.

In a letter to Vaeth late on Monday, U.S. Senator Patty Murray and U.S. Representative Rose DeLauro, the top Democrats on the congressional appropriation committees, said the order was “breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country.”

“We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law,” the Democrats wrote.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the administration did not have the authority to halt spending that had been approved by Congress and that the order, if implemented, would harm millions of Americans.

“It will mean missed payrolls and rent payments and everything in between: chaos for everything from universities to non-profit charities, state disaster assistance, local law enforcement, aid to the elderly, and food for those in need,” Schumer said in a post on X late on Monday.

U.S. Representative Tom Emmer, the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, said Trump was simply following through on his campaign promises.

“You need to understand he was elected to shake up the status quo. That is what he’s going to do. It’s not going to be business as usual,” Emmer told reporters at a Republican policy retreat in Miami.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington, United States:

The Trump administration urged US Agency for International Development (USAID) workers to join the effort to transform how Washington allocates aid around the world in line with Trump’s “America First” policy. It threatened “disciplinary action” for any staff ignoring the administration’s orders.

A sharply-worded memo sent on Saturday to more than 10,000 staff at USAID offered further guidance to Friday’s “stop-work” directive that effectively put a sweeping freeze on US foreign aid worldwide. The memo, reviewed by Reuters, laid out expectations for the workforce on how to achieve Trump’s goals.

“We have a responsibility to support the President in achieving his vision,” Ken Jackson, assistant to the administrator for management and resources wrote in the internal memo, titled “Message and Expectation to the Workforce.”

“The President has given us a tremendous opportunity to transform the way we approach foreign assistance for decades to come,” the memo said. Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the memo with several sources.

Since taking office last week, Trump has taken steps toward fulfilling his vow to remake a federal bureaucracy he believes was hostile to him during his 2017-2021 presidency. He has reassigned or fired hundreds of federal workers in simultaneous moves against a swath of agencies.

Hours after taking office, Trump ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid to review if it was aligned with his foreign policy priorities. On Friday, the State Department issued a stop-work order worldwide even for existing and appropriated assistance, calling into question billions of dollars of life-saving aid.

The United States is the largest single donor of aid globally. In fiscal year 2023, it disbursed $72 billion in assistance.

USAID and the White House National Security Council (NSC) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

Friday’s memo shocked the humanitarian groups and communities conducting development aid across the globe. While the scope of the directive appears far-reaching, uncertainties linger over how it will be carried out.

The memo on Saturday offered only partial clarity.

The pause on foreign aid spending means “a complete halt,” it said. The only exceptions are for emergency humanitarian food assistance and for government officials returning to their duty stations. Waivers allowing delivery of emergency food during the review period will require “detailed information and justification.”

The memo said further waivers would require two layers of approval – one from USAID leadership and another by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Any waiver must be thoroughly justified to demonstrate that the specific assistance for which the waiver is sought is necessary for lifesaving purposes, cannot be performed by current US direct hire staff, or would otherwise pose significant risks to national security,” the memo said.

All foreign assistance programs will undergo “comprehensive review” during the pause in spending, the memo says. “It is important to emphasize that it is no longer business as usual. Every program will be thoroughly scrutinized.”

Saturday’s directive also banned any communications outside the agency, including between USAID and the State Department, unless they are approved by the former’s front office.

“Failure to abide by this directive, or any of the directives sent out earlier this week and in the coming weeks, will result in disciplinary action,” it said.

Separately, USAID sent contractors a notice ordering them to “immediately issue stop-work orders” and to “amend, or suspend existing awards.” 

Humanitarian organizations and other donors are scrambling to understand how the directive will impact life-saving operations in countries across the globe. It is too soon to tell whether or what specific services will have to be paused, they said.

In 2024, the US provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)