Representatives of dozens of non -profit organizations who attended a major human rights conference in Taipei, Taiwan, last week, woke up to devastating news on Thursday. The night before in Asia, the Donald Trump administration suddenly announced that it would terminate nearly 10,000 contracts and grants from the US State Department, including the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), as well as the US Agency for International Development, which represent about 90 percent of USAID contracts in general.
The announcement was the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to limit US foreign aid, which has provided medical and humanitarian assistance to millions of people for decades. A letter from USAID to the beneficiaries seen by Wired has instructed them to “immediately stop all activities, end all units and contracts, and avoid entering into any extra expenses” above the inevitable costs associated with this termination notice. “
Several digital and human rights organizations who spoke to Taipei with Wired in Taipei are usually on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation of the Trump administration or their own government-said that the cuts have undermined years of global democracy build-up and free speech initiatives and the lives and life of their staff.
Many of the groups who were at Rightscon, one of the largest annual events centered on human rights and technology now organized by non -profit access, focuses especially on supporting cyber security for people such as journalists, activists and other vulnerable groups in authoritarian countries, such as protecting them from doxxing and hacking. Without the financing of USAID and the State Department, that work is likely to stop.
“The digital security ecosystem has completely collapsed for NGOs,” says Mohammed Al-Maskati, director of Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline, which offers free digital security assistance to journalists, civil society activists.
Only days after the cancellations caused even further confusion, some organizations said they received notifications that they were sent wrongly, according to correspondence reviewed by Wired. It is not clear how the Trump administration determined which grants and organizations would be saved.
However, non-profit organizations that can keep their financing from the US government will be subject to a new requirement: their contracts now include a rider who complies with an executive order against the Dei who signed Trump at the end of January. This applies to all the programs of an organization, even if they do not all receive US support. Failure to follow the order can make up a violation of the False Claims Act, the Trump administration warned in material reviewed by Wired.
When Wired initially reached out about the cancellations, a state department representative said that “each program underwent a review with the aim of restructuring help to align with the administration’s policy priorities. Programs that serve the interests of our country will continue. However, programs that are not in line with our national interest will not. “
The State Department did not respond to follow -up questions about the reinstatement of certain grants. USAID did not respond to requests for comment. In a post on X on Monday, Musk argued that “Nobody died as a result of a short break to do a healthy check about financing for foreign aid. Nobody. “He categorized Doge’s work to the aid agency much more dramatically last month, and he boasted that he spent one weekend feeding USAID in the woodcutter. “