Budget specifically sought "greater accountability by international partners along with donor burden sharing that is more balanced.",[1]
Testimony from the Democrats' witnesses reinforces the President's skepticism of foreign assistance. Ambassador Taylor, U.S. chargé a.i. in Kyiv, testified that on August 22, 2019, he had a phone conversation with NSC Senior Director for Europe Tim Morrison in which Morrison said that the "President doesn't want to provide any assistance at all."[2] Morrison testified that President Trump generally does not like giving foreign aid to other countries and believes U.S. "ought not" to be the only country providing security assistance.[3] LTC Vindman, the NSC director handling Ukraine policy, similarly testified that President Trump is skeptical of foreign aid.[4]
In fact, evidence suggests that President Trump sought to review U.S. taxpayer-funded foreign assistance across the board. Ambassador David Hale, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, testified that the Trump Administration was undertaking a "review" of foreign assistance globally.[5] He testified:
Q. You mentioned that there was a foreign assistance review undergoing –
A. Yes.
Q. – at that time. What can you tell us about that?
A. Well, it had been going on for quite a while, and the concept, you know, the administration did not want to take a, sort of, business-as-usual approach to foreign assistance, a feeling that once a country has received a certain assistance package, it's a – it's something that continues forever. It's very difficult to end those programs and to make sure that we have a very rigorous measure of why we are providing the assistance. We didn't go to zero base, but almost a zero-based concept that each assistance program and each country that receives the program had to be evaluated that they were actually worthy beneficiaries of our assistance; that the program made sense; that we have embarked on, you know, calling everything that we do around the world countering violent extremism, but, rather, that's actually focused on tangible and proven means to deal with extremist problems; that we avoid nation-building strategies; and that we not provide assistance to countries that are lost to us in terms of policy, to our adversaries.
- ↑ Id. at 73.
- ↑ Taylor deposition, supra note 47, at 33.
- ↑ Morrison deposition, supra note 12, at 78-79, 132.
- ↑ Impeachment Inquiry: LTC Alexander Vindman and Ms. Jennifer Williams, supra note 6.
- ↑ Deposition of Ambassador David Hale, in Wash., D.C., at 80 (Nov. 6, 2019) [hereinafter "Hale deposition"].
34
