No sooner was he sworn in than Donald Trump, in a series of 'executive orders' and memos, unleashed pandemonium in the global aid order.
His 20 January order demanded the realignment of all US foreign development assistance and cooperation efforts with his government's 'America First' mission.
With the order to freeze all US foreign aid programmes, except for a few waivers granted in patches for emergency HIV/AIDS programming and similar work, the Trump-Musk alliance then set about dismantling USAID, the jewel in the crown of America's international development cooperation system.
Analysts expect less than 5% of USAID's global staff to keep their jobs if ongoing legal resistance fails.
