As the Trump administration works to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a new KFF poll finds that two-thirds (67%) of the public believe these actions will increase illness and death in low-income countries, and a similar majority (62%) believe it will result in more humanitarian crises around the world.
At the same time, nearly half of the public believe the dissolution of USAID will significantly reduce the U.S. budget deficit (47%) and allow funds to be redirected to domestic programs (47%).
Views on the impact of downsizing USAID divide sharply along partisan lines, with most Democrats and independents expecting more illness and death in low-income countries (91% and 69%, respectively), and most Republicans expecting positive impacts on domestic programs (72%) and the budget deficit (67%).
The poll also finds that most of the public grossly overestimates how much the federal government spends on foreign aid. When informed that it is actually about 1% of the federal budget, far fewer people say the U.S. spends “too much” on foreign aid.
About one in ten (11%) adults correctly estimate that 1% or less of the federal budget goes to foreign aid, with others guessing higher amounts, including more than half (54%) who guess more than 10%. On average, U.S. adults guess that foreign aid accounts for 26% of the federal budget.
When initially asked about the level of U.S. foreign aid prior to President Trump taking office, most say the country was spending “too much” (58%). After being informed that foreign aid accounts for about 1% of the federal budget, the share of the public who says that the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid drops more than 20 percentage points to one-third (34%).
This shift is similar across partisans. After hearing that only about 1% percent of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid, the share saying the U.S. spends too much drops to 50% among Republicans, 39% among independents, and 15% among Democrats.
