Congress recently approved President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $9.4 billion in previously approved funding. Although the rescissions bill reflected savings from deep cuts to foreign aid, its passage does not mean the United States is, or should be, retreating from using effective soft power tools to advance American interests abroad.
Trump’s military strikes on Iran show that his impulse is to use the tools he has available to protect and promote the interests of the U.S., even if pundits are skeptical. The president now has the opportunity to use foreign aid tools to meet American interests more effectively and efficiently moving forward.
Even as Trump works to save taxpayer money, he knows the U.S. cannot afford to ignore external threats, from deadly diseases to rising extremism, which military tools cannot effectively address. This is why White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said in a Senate hearing that the rescissions cuts are not a “fade on soft power.”
Rescinding funding is a lawful and not uncommon tactic that past presidents, from Jimmy Carter to George H.W. Bush, have used to redirect spending. Trump, working with Congress, codified the savings of past spending for programs that are now ending or have not shown tangible benefits to the American public.
Not everything in the rescissions bill is “waste,” however, and some of it should be funded again going forward. For example, Congress eliminated $142 million in UNICEF core funding, which is one-quarter of the $600 million that the Pentagon spends annually on printing. This funding was working to prevent outbreaks of highly infectious diseases, stem migration, and combat conditions that drive terrorism. This funding was not for “overhead,” like some claimed, and its absence will mean Americans now face heightened risk from infectious diseases, migration, and terrorism, while putting millions of children at risk of dying. For instance, cuts will disrupt health services for up to 13 million children across West and Central Africa. An infectious disease outbreak in that area is one flight away from infecting families across the Eastern seaboard.
The legislation also axed bilateral funding proven to deliver for Americans, including programs that address instability during post-conflict transitions and support U.S.-friendly governments to govern effectively. Without these programs, the U.S. is less able, whether in Syria or post-war Ukraine, to deliver assistance that benefits civilians and shapes outcomes most advantageous to American interests.
As Congress develops its soft power budget for fiscal 2026, the president’s team and Congress should consider three key imperatives as they finalize their soft power plan.
First, the U.S. should support humanitarian aid that addresses priority threats to the public that the military alone cannot solve. This includes helping prevent and mitigate the spread of deadly infectious diseases and mitigate factors that can accelerate migration and terrorism.
We know this assistance works. In 2024, for example, modest U.S. support enabled Rwanda to stop the spread of the highly infectious and lethal Marburg disease. During the 2022 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, U.S. assistance helped contain the spread of the disease and sustain life-saving services for women and children. In Guatemala, focused U.S. assistance has alleviated factors that, if unaddressed, would further accelerate already high migration to the U.S. Humanitarian assistance in the Sahel, the world’s current epicenter of terrorist activity, has arguably helped dampen what would be even higher recruitment and attack numbers.
Second, in countries where such assistance is welcomed, the U.S. should help governments strengthen their regulatory infrastructure, delivery systems, and underlying political processes. Using finite foreign assistance to support these improvements will yield near-term results for American businesses and recipient countries by increasing investment opportunities and unlocking the longer-term benefits of economic growth: Democratizing nations gain an 8.8% GDP per capita boost over 20 years. More transparent regulations and reliable institutions not only create better environments for U.S. companies. They also make it harder for America’s adversaries to exert their malign influence and solidify their access to critical minerals.
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Finally, the newly revamped State Department, which will now lead on all foreign assistance, must ensure each foreign aid project advances American interests and benefits the local population. The latter is necessary but insufficient. Taxpayers’ money spent abroad needs to benefit people here at home.
Threats with the highest possible negative effect for Americans remain military in nature, from a possible war with China or a nuclear-armed North Korea. But the U.S. also faces a range of pressing, dangerous challenges from disease outbreaks to terrorist recruitment that are immune to bullets or bombs. We need soft power tools to keep the public safe from these and other threats.
James Mazzarella is senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center. He served as senior director of global economics and development on the White House National Security Council in the first Trump administration.
Patrick Quirk is vice president for global policy and public affairs at UNICEF USA and a senior adviser with the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center. He served in the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff during the first Trump administration.