From: Agence France-Presse January 25, 2025
Memo: US freezes almost all aid except for Israel, Egypt

The United States, the world's biggest donor, froze virtually all foreign aid on Friday, making exceptions only for,
1. emergency food,
2. and military funding for Israel and Egypt.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo days after President Donald Trump took office vowing an "America First" policy of tightly restricting assistance overseas.

"No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved," said the memo to staff seen by AFP.

The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid -- including to Ukraine which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.

But the memo explicitly made exceptions for military assistance to,
1. Israel, whose longstanding major arms packages from the United States have expanded further since the Gaza war
2. and Egypt, which has received generous US defense funding since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979

Rubio also made an exception for US contributions to emergency food assistance, which the United States has been contributing following crises around the world including in Sudan and Syria.