EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is laying out its clearest blueprint yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S.foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade and American business — not taxpayer-funded assistance — should become America's primary engine for development abroad.At a U.S.
Mission to the United Nations "Trade Over Aid" forum in New York Monday, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S.permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the administration is "completely reforming how we do aid" by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private-sector-led development."For too many years, the United States and other countries have poured billions and billions of dollars into these aid programs and got very little in return," Waltz said.
"You go to these forums at the United Nations and at development agencies around the world, and you never find the private sector.You find NGOs and academics and governments, but you don’t find the creators of growth and the creators of jobs."U.S.
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DEFENDS AGENCY'S MISSIONAmbassador Mike Waltz speaks at the U.S.Mission to the United Nations’ "Trade Over Aid" forum in New York, where Trump administration officials pitched private investment as a new engine of global development.
July 14, 2026.(Donald Conahan/ U.S.
mission to the U.N.)Waltz said the new model is designed to "create jobs, to create business for American companies in line with America First," while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.The administration moved to dismantle USAID in 2025, arguing the agency was inefficient and too often disconnected from U.S.foreign policy.
Asked directly whether "Trade Over Aid" is replacing USAID, Waltz said USAID’s functions had been folded into the State Department as part of a broader efficiency effort, but insisted the initiativ...