August 18, 2026
Americans may be divided over the United States’s role in the world, but a surprising majority still believe the US has a responsibility to help people facing war, famine, disease, and displacement. The problem, David Miliband tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World, is that many Americans dramatically overestimate how much the government actually spends on foreign aid and underestimate what that aid accomplishes. Humanitarian assistance isn’t just charity: it can be a remarkably cost-effective way to prevent global crises from spiraling out of control.
Last July, the Trump administration officially shuttered USAID, America’s main agency for foreign aid distribution. That retreat from humanitarian relief is already having consequences. At the International Rescue Committee alone, two million people lost access to services in 2025 because of American cuts, including Afghan children who lost educational support, Sudanese refugees who lost healthcare, and farmers in Niger who lost assistance. Now, as Ebola resurges in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world is paying the price in 2026 of cuts made in 2025, with a humanitarian system that has far less room for error.
“The real state of American foreign aid is massively reduced,” Miliband says, “America was the anchor of the global system and it's no longer the anchor of the global system.”
Last July, the Trump administration officially shuttered USAID, America’s main agency for foreign aid distribution. That retreat from humanitarian relief is already having consequences. At the International Rescue Committee alone, two million people lost access to services in 2025 because of American cuts, including Afghan children who lost educational support, Sudanese refugees who lost healthcare, and farmers in Niger who lost assistance. Now, as Ebola resurges in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world is paying the price in 2026 of cuts made in 2025, with a humanitarian system that has far less room for error.
“The real state of American foreign aid is massively reduced,” Miliband says, “America was the anchor of the global system and it's no longer the anchor of the global system.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
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