A majority of Americans continue to support foreign development assistance one year after the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to a new poll commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation.
The survey of 2,022 registered voters found that while many Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement initially expressed scepticism about foreign aid, support increased significantly after respondents were provided with information about its cost and impact.
The poll showed that most Americans vastly overestimated government spending on foreign aid, with more than one-third believing it accounted for 20pc of the annual US budget.
After learning that foreign aid represented just 1pc of the federal budget before 2025 and receiving information about its role in disaster relief, disease prevention and global security, overall support rose from 54pc to 70pc.
Support among Republicans increased to 58pc, while half of MAGA Republicans—defined in the poll as those who primarily support Trump over the Republican Party—also backed foreign aid.
Trump, who made reducing foreign assistance a central part of his “America First” agenda, ordered the closure of USAID after taking office in January 2025.
The move resulted in the dismissal of more than 10,000 USAID employees and contractors and the cancellation of thousands of aid programmes, disrupting US-funded humanitarian operations that served millions of vulnerable people worldwide. US government data shows foreign aid spending fell from $72 billion in fiscal year 2024 to $47bn in fiscal year 2025.
According to a study published last year in The Lancet, those reductions could contribute to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.
The survey, conducted by Echelon Insights between June 12 and June 16, found that 78pc of respondents supported maintaining or increasing foreign aid funding.
“This data is a direct rebuttal to anyone who claims Americans have lost their appetite for the world,” said John Gans, a former Pentagon speechwriter and project lead at the Rockefeller Foundation.
“One year after USAID’s razing, a majority of Americans don’t just want to ensure federal funding to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and respond to crisis around the world; they see good reason to increase it.”
The poll also found that MAGA voters showed the largest shift in opinion, with support for foreign aid increasing by 27 percentage points after respondents received additional information.
When presented with details about the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including expert assessments that US funding cuts contributed to its rapid spread, 62pc of Republicans supported restoring aid for the response, compared with 24pc who opposed it. Among MAGA voters, 52pc supported restoring funding, while 34pc opposed it.
The Trump administration has since responded to the worsening outbreak and is seeking more than $1.4bn in additional funding from Congress to combat the disease.
The survey also found that support rose sharply for specific foreign aid programmes such as disease prevention and peacekeeping missions, with 80pc of respondents favouring reform and stronger oversight rather than eliminating aid altogether.
Only 12pc of those surveyed supported cutting all foreign aid regardless of its consequences.
