The United States has been implementing steep cuts to its overseas aid development programmes since Donald Trump became US president in 2024. In 2025, US Foreign Aid went from $200 billion to $174 billion with proposals for more cuts. Most of the aid effected include humanitarian relief as well as stabilisation projects, within the circles of the current administration foreign aid is treated as an unacceptable freebie or handout that gives the United States very little in return.
While USAID is treated as a drain at best on America’s resources and at worst an attempt by the old liberal elite to benefit foreigners over Americans, few who demonise it understand what USAID actually does. Cuts to these programmes hamper global efforts in emergency relief as well as helping countries to get back on their feet. It is here that we find an intervention into the debate by James A Harmon, Cornelius Queen and Mark Warren with their latest book A Daring Enterprise: A US-Egyptian Partnership and the Case for Soft Power. The authors were part of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, which was set up in 2011 with US congressional money with the aim of rebuilding Egypt’s private sector following the Arab Spring uprising.
