President Trump is moving to block $5 billion in foreign aid, using a method that hasn't been tried since 1977, known as a "pocket recission," according to an exclusive report by The New York Post.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump cancels nearly $5 billion in wasteful FOREIGN AID at USAID and the State Department via a pocket recission. Let's go.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 29, 2025
Trump used the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, reporting 15 recissions. pic.twitter.com/r733hVlEdp
On Thursday night, he asked Congress to cancel those federal funds, which had been released from a court case in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals earlier that same day. This type of request is called a “pocket rescission.” A pocket rescission occurs when the president submits a request so late in the fiscal year (which ends on September 30) that the money effectively gets canceled, regardless of the circumstances. Even if Congress does not approve the request, the funds will expire before they can be spent.
The rescission targets several major areas of foreign assistance. It blocks $3.2 billion designated for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), along with $322 million from the joint USAID–State Department Democracy Fund. It also eliminates $521 million in State Department contributions to international organizations, $393 million in U.S. funding for United Nations peacekeeping operations, and an additional $445 million in separately budgeted peacekeeping assistance.
The Trump administration has emphasized certain spending items it considers wasteful. These include $24.6 million allocated for “climate resilience” initiatives in Honduras, $2.7 million for the South African Democracy Works Foundation, which has published controversial articles, including one titled “The Problem with White People,” and $3.9 million intended to support democracy promotion efforts among LGBT communities in the Western Balkans. Another included $1.5 million to market the paintings of Ukrainian women.
The rescission will not impact U.S. funding for the Multinational Force and Observers, the peacekeeping mission that monitors the security arrangements along the Egyptian-Israeli border.
The legality of pocket rescissions is debated, since there is little court precedent on the matter. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has ruled the practice illegal, while the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget has argued it is perfectly allowed. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 limits the president’s ability to withhold spending and sets out the proper process for legislative rescissions. This process was used recently by the Trump administration to cancel $1 billion in funding for NPR and PBS and $8 billion in contributions from USAID.