Trump to ban foreign aid over ‘gender ideology,’ diversity
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — United States (US) President Donald Trump’s administration will refuse billions of dollars in potential foreign assistance so as not to promote “gender ideology” and diversity, two of its frequent targets, a US official said Thursday.
The move is being framed as an expansion of the State Department’s so-called Mexico City policy, in which Republican administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan have banned US funding to non-governmental organisations that either perform or are seen as promoting abortion.
The new policy will “protect foreign assistance from subsidising not only abortion as a method of family planning, but also gender ideology (and) discriminatory equity ideology / DEI,” an administration official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, said that the expansion would cover more than $30 billion in potential foreign assistance, as opposed to $8 billion under the existing policy.
The exact impact will remain to be seen, as the Trump administration has already dramatically slashed foreign assistance, including dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was the world’s largest governmental aid provider.
Trump, in his campaign and as president, has railed against transgender rights, frequently using derogatory terms to recall former president Joe Biden’s support for the transgender community.
His administration has sought to ban schools from letting transgender female athletes play in girls’ sports and has reversed a Biden decision to allow an “X” marker for gender on passports.
Trump has also taken aim at DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — initiatives, saying that efforts in education and employment aimed at accounting for historic racism amount to discrimination against the country’s majority white community, which forms his base.
Biden and other Democratic presidents during their terms rescinded the Mexico City policy, which critics dubbed the “global gag rule” for prohibiting any discussion of abortion.
