The Trump administration is laying out its clearest blueprint yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S. foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade, and American business — not taxpayer-funded assistance — should become America’s primary engine for development abroad.

Trade Over Aid Initiative

At a U.S. Mission to the United Nations ‘Trade Over Aid’ forum in New York, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that the administration is ‘completely reforming how we do aid’ by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private-sector-led development.

Waltz said the new model is designed to ‘create jobs, to create business for American companies in line with America First,’ while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.

Shifting Away from USAID

The administration moved to dismantle USAID in 2025, arguing the agency was inefficient and too often disconnected from U.S. foreign policy. Waltz insisted the initiative is about something larger than one agency, focusing on helping American businesses and creating jobs around the world.

The forum brought together representatives from dozens of countries, U.N. agencies, international financial institutions, and major private-sector players. Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny attended the forum and said the idea resonated with his country’s own post-communist experience.

Ambassador Dan Negrea, who is spearheading the initiative, said shrinking aid budgets around the world make a new model necessary. The initiative has received less resistance from developing countries than from traditional donor nations.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.