WASHINGTON (OSV News) – President Donald Trump on Feb. 7 called for shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development after a tumultuous few days for the agency – days that called into question the future of U.S. foreign aid efforts, including its partnerships with faith-based NGOs such as Catholic Relief Services.
The same week, Trump pitched a U.S. takeover of Gaza, with a mass deportation of Palestinians to third countries, following the Israel-Hamas conflict. His administration also weighed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's offer to accept convicted American criminals and U.S. permanent residents to that country's prisons. Trump also signed an executive order, praised by U.S. bishops, which barred athletes who are biologically male from competing in women's sports.
Trump calls for closure of USAID amid tumult
In a Feb. 7 post on his social media website, Trump wrote, "USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE."
"THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE," Trump wrote. "CLOSE IT DOWN!"
Amid a broader freeze on federal spending on foreign assistance, the Trump administration moved to place most of USAID's global staff on leave and reportedly plans to retain only several hundred workers out of 10,000. The agency is supposed to be rolled into the State Department.
Critics of USAID argued it engaged in wasteful spending or that the federal dollars appropriated to USAID would be better spent domestically. But advocates said rollbacks to USAID could have negative consequences around the globe as well as to the U.S. economy. Its closure could also greatly impact the work of CRS and also other faith-based entities around the globe that have partnered with USAID in its work abroad.
Trump pitches U.S. take over of Gaza
At a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump suggested he wanted the construction of new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take "ownership" in redeveloping the war-torn territory.
"I don't want to be a wise guy but the Riviera of the Middle East," Trump said of such an endeavor.
The announcement reportedly took even some administration officials by surprise.
But the move prompted condemnation from other countries in the region and even some concern among U.S. allies. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle also expressed concern.
Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, a London think tank, expressed concern that the idea "would effectively end the US commitment to the two-state solution."
"Enormous damage has been done to the fragile peace process and US prestige," Aboudouh wrote in a post on Chatham House's website.
"Any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing," United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in response to reporters' questions about Trump's statement Feb. 5.
Human Rights Watch also stated Trump's plan amounted to "ethnic cleansing" of the enclave's Palestinian population in violation of international law.
"It would move the US from being complicit in war crimes to direct perpetration of atrocities," Lama Fakih, HRW's Middle East and North Africa director, said.
The Catholic Church condemns forced population transfers, including ethnic cleansing, as "always unacceptable," according to the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
But some Trump allies, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., praised the idea. Johnson called it "bold" and "decisive" in comments to reporters.
How Trump plans to redevelop the area – occupied by 2.1 million Palestinians and still ruled by the Hamas militant group – remains unclear.
Trump administration weighs Bukele's offer to imprison convicted Americans
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who has sought to draw attention to that nation's prison in his aggressive efforts to combat crime, offered to accept convicted American criminals and U.S. permanent residents in that country's jails, Trump administration officials said.
Trump administration officials appeared open to the offer, which would involve deporting American citizens to El Salvador. Such a move would raise questions about its legality – both under international law and the U.S. Constitution.
"There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution, we have all sorts of things, but it's a very generous offer," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a press conference in Costa Rica on Feb. 4.
"We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," Trump told reporters when asked about the proposal.
U.S. bishops praise Trump's executive order on women's sports
Two committee chairs from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops praised Trump's executive order barring athletes who are biologically male from competing in women's sports.
"We welcome the President's Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly," said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and Bishop David M. O'Connell of Trenton, New Jersey.
"Consistent with the Catholic Church's clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity," their statement said. "This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person's body, which is genetically and biologically female or male."
The executive order said the Trump administration will "prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against educational institutions" that "deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women's category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males."
Bishops Barron and O'Connell – chairs of the USCCB's Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Committee on Catholic Education, respectively – added, "The Catholic Church teaches, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: 'Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God.'"
The bishops added, "Athletics not only provide valuable educational opportunities, fostering discipline, teamwork, and personal growth, but they also serve as a celebration of the human body as a gift from God."
However, they also emphasized, based on the human person's inherent dignity that "the Church stands firmly against all unjust discrimination, including against those who experience gender discordance, who are equally loved by God."
"Students who experience gender dysphoria bear the full measure of human dignity, and they therefore must be treated with kindness and respect," they said. "Similar to their peers, those students must be assured the right to participate in or try out for co-educational activities in accord with their biological sex."
Trump administration officials said they expect the executive order to be followed by the Olympic Committee for the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Games.
