US President Donald Trump on Tuesday moved to reinstate at least six recently canceled US foreign aid programs for emergency food assistance.
The quick reversal of decisions made just days ago underscored the rapid-fire nature of Trump's cuts to foreign aid.
It has resulted to programmes being cut, restored then cut again, disrupting international humanitarian operations.
USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jeremy Lewin, who has previously been identified as a member of billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, asked staff in an internal email to reverse the terminations.
Lewin also asked to restore awards to the World Food Programme in Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador.
The administration has also reportedly resumed four awards to the International Organization for Migration in the Pacific region,
“Sorry for all the back and forth on awards. There are a lot of stakeholders and we need to do better about balancing these competing interests — that’s my fault and I take responsibility,” Lewin said.
DAILY POST reported on Monday that the Trump administration had ended life-saving aid programmes for more than a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, totaling over $1.3 billion.
Stand Up For Aid, an advocacy group of current and former US officials said World Food Programme contracts canceled on Lewin’s orders last weekend for Lebanon, Syria, Somalia and Jordan totaled more than $463 million.
Many of the terminated programmes are said to have been granted waivers by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following an initial round of cuts to foreign aid programs.
As of the time of filing this report, the State Department has not commented about restoring the awards.
