NEW YORK, August 29. /TASS/. The administration of US President Donald Trump intends to reduce foreign aid by another $5 bln, which included $1.5 mln "to market the paintings of Ukrainian women," the New York Post (NYP) reported.
According to the report, of the $5 bln to be returned to the US budget, $3.2 bln had been allocated to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), while the remainder was earmarked for other State Department funds.
The report noted that the assistance package included $24.6 mln for climate change programs in Honduras, $3.9 mln for promoting LGBT ideology (the movement is designated extremist and banned in Russia) in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and $2.7 mln for the operations of the South African Democracy Support Fund, whose platforms published articles inciting racial hatred.
In addition, the White House will return $838 mln to the US budget that had been directed toward supporting United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. The cut funds for peacekeeping activities included $11 mln for the purchase of armored personnel carriers for Uruguayan peacekeepers, $4 mln for the establishment of a training center in Zambia, and $3 mln for barracks to house peacekeepers from Kazakhstan.
On February 3, the Trump administration effectively suspended the operations of USAID, which had long been employed as a tool of US foreign policy and influence abroad. On March 10, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appointed interim head of USAID, announced that the government, following a review, had terminated 83% of the agency’s programs.