CNN
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President Donald Trump is diligently dismantling the agency that was once defended by his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump.
The work of the US International Development Agency is important enough to the president, and in a 2019 coalition speech, he announced new important priorities within the agency to help his daughter take the lead.
“As part of our commitment to improving opportunities for women everywhere, this Thursday we launched the first ever government-wide initiative focusing on economic empowerment for women in developing countries. “We’re doing that,” he said in the House.
A few days later, Ivanka Trump joined, and senior officials and women affected by overseas funding for the economic empowerment of women in the US, signed a memorandum of understanding from the president establishing W-GDP, and the women’s National security and “a tremendous step for women” are initiatives for global development and prosperity.
But six years later, Trump has frozen almost all foreign aid, and his administration is spitting USAID. USAID staff around the world were to take leave by ordering to return to the United States on Friday, but that afternoon a federal judge ordered the administration to temporarily suspend power.
The Trump administration’s USAID target has been hit hard by the beneficiaries of Ivanka Trump’s overseas work.
“The people she interacted with and she gave her hope and promises. It’s been separated from them. …I mean, we’re just absolutely devastated,” said the current USAID employee.
Nino Zambahize, a Georgian farmer who was shown at Trump’s signature ceremony, said the uptick will be “shocking” and that it will come when the world “already feels upside down.”
“When I saw President Trump again elected, I thought he loved the program and would bring more support for women’s economic empowerment,” Zambahize added. Financial support after four lending agencies shot down her as she was a woman.
She came to see Trump and his daughter as “someone willing to invest in women to get more equality and a more peaceful and sustainable world,” and now she says, “What Hell is doing?” I’m having trouble understanding what?
A spokesman for Ivanka Trump did not respond to multiple inquiries regarding her stance on the administration’s move to disband USAID. Bored in Florida, she mostly left politics and has not played the same role in her father’s first four years at the White House. The White House did not return a request for comment from CNN.
The willingness to abandon Donald Trump’s once defended programme shows a greater pivot from past approaches to foreign aid. It coincides with his campaign pledge to cut federal spending. This is now a promise made with impressive speed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, leaving government workers scrambling to keep pace. The move also reflects the inspiring criticism of foreign support outlined in Project 2025. This is a conservative policy blueprint for potential second Trump terminology written by many of his allies and former advisors.
Nevertheless, Trump’s reversal against USAID has prevented the international community from shaking. Even if he proposed past budgets to cut funds, Trump gave USAID a table seat when shaping his defense strategy during his first term, and director of Strategic and Strategic and Resilience Initiatives Noam Unger said. International research. Its defense blueprint, released a year after Trump took office, calls past work “some of the greatest victory of the American nation,” and aims to spread influence and progress around the world. We outlined plans to unlock investment.
“In the first Trump administration, there was a very conscious effort to leverage US foreign policy, including aid, to counter the malignant effects of the US enemies and rivals at the global stage,” he said. Unger said.
His broad support for foreign aid in his first administration was on display during Trump’s W-GDP signature ceremony. Joined by lawmakers on both parties, UN Ambassador John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said, “National Security Strategy will help women invest in achieving great national peace and prosperity.” “He declared.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the program will unlock $12 trillion in global GDP and “create another China without a trade deficit.” Trump laughed in response.
“Economic stability is a great defense policy,” Trump’s Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said during his signing.
Later, turning to Ivanka Trump, Shanahan added: “I hope your initiative will put me out of business.”
During her father’s first administration, Ivanka Trump worked personally with USAID to develop the W-GDP initiative, building relationships within the institution and the private sector. Relying on agency development expertise and a global footprint, we will create three programs aimed at educating women and entrepreneurship. and eliminates legal, regulatory and cultural barriers that prevent women from participating in the economy.
It was a relatively noncontradictory, non-political project, and many measures have resulted in the great success and achievement of her legacy. Although it was rebranded under the Biden administration, the initiative continued to thrive and impact women around the world. According to a fact sheet provided by current USAID employees earlier this week, the initial $50 million investment in the USAID fund had been raised to $300 million by its third year.
“It was one of the good news stories that came out of that White House. It’s good to empower women financially. Most people can agree with it. She’s very interested. There was and was involved,” her team on the initiative demanded that anonymity be spoken freely.
The program reached 12 million women in its first year, according to background material provided by the White House at the time.
“When women are empowered economically, society’s prosperity and peace win,” Ivanka Trump said in a video promoting work.
Uganda-based project manager Lillian Achomo joined Trump in an oval office as the president held a signature ceremony to establish W-GDP.
Reminiscing the February 2019 day, Achomo is part of a women-led effort to provide affordable internet to rural communities, benefiting from a 2018 grant from a program maintained by Ivanka Trump He said he was shocked by the attention he received at her work. USAID that served as a precursor to W-GDP.
“Our work is actually recognized, right? Our work in the northern Uganda community is actually recognized by the US by the US president,” Achomo said. “Supporting a woman with a small capital cause is actually a multiplier effect, and for me it was an opportunity for him to really air it, so that he puts the emphasis on it. And I I was very grateful that the opportunity was given to me.”
The project impacted thousands of people in Kenya, Namibia, Senegal and Morocco, and said it would not have been possible without its USAID funding.
“It changed the whole organization. …It really changed a lot of lives,” she said.
Ivanka Trump sent a personal letter to Acomo after his visit.
“I was deeply moved by your story and thanked us for your contribution to our discussion about the importance of global women’s economic empowerment as a catalyst for global peace, prosperity and stability,” Trump said. I’m writing in a letter surrounded by Acomo’s houses.
The White House continued to defend Ivanka Trump’s initiative and its reach. Shortly after she joined Mark Green, the then-used administrator, the administration promoted amendments to the country’s marriage laws on a trip to Cote D’Avoir. Examples of program impact.
Green, now president and CEO of Woodrow Wilson International Scholars Center, was not available for interviews with CNN, the organization’s spokesman. His successor, John Barca, contacted him by phone at his Virginia home and told CNN he had not spoken to the media at this time.
After the first Trump administration, W-GDP will be rebooted as a Gender Equity and Ecity Action Fund (GEEA) and invested $300 million in additional resources directly into resources, according to a fact sheet provided by current USAID staff members. I continued doing it.
As of April 2024, 55 awards from the program were active and were still in operation, the fact sheet noted. The project included issues of women’s land rights, closure of digital disparities, promoting women’s leadership in agriculture, food security, entrepreneurship and leadership in the energy sector. According to Fact Sheet, more than 60 additional projects have begun under the GEEA.
The 2024 USAID progress report, which documented the impact of the GEEA obtained by CNN, said that women’s investment in economic security programs “has reached over 686,000 individuals in 87 countries.” “We have supported more than 18,000 women to expand our entrepreneurs and digital skills, labor rights and employment opportunities.” “We have helped over 26,000 women receive legally recognized and documented land or ocean tenure.”
However, on January 27th, Donald Trump came to power, and the GEEA program was subject to a suspension order to halt USAID operations. The future of the program is unknown.
Removed programs like Geea, who worked closely with Ivanka Trump, “makes the United States even weaker and ultimately puts Americans at risk.”
Zambahize, a Georgian farmer, remained optimistic as the president ultimately reversed the course and cited his past support for his daughter’s work through USAID.
“If they review the various projects, we hope they see the benefits they have brought to rural women in different countries,” she said.
