We polled the American public three times recently to understand some of their views towards US aid and multilateralism. We ran these polls in the days before the election (Nov ‘24), just after the USAID freeze was announced (early Feb ‘25), and a month after Trump’s inauguration (mid Feb ‘25).

Five key takeaways:

The same old myths about US aid spending are still dominating public opinion. Whether it’s overestimating the amount we actually spend on aid, underestimating other countries’ contributions, or overestimating the amount lost to waste and corruption, those of us advocating for US aid have largely failed to address the public’s most common misconceptions about US aid.
Despite concerns about effectiveness, the American people still support US aid and want to see it continue. Americans do tend to support the temporary freeze to review our aid spending - perhaps no surprise given 57% think most aid is lost to waste and corruption. But, the key word here is ‘temporary’ - they want US aid restored after the 90 days are up.
To Americans, reformed aid means reaching the most people in need, not prioritising US interests. Secretary Rubio - now acting Administrator for USAID - wants to take an “America First” approach to US aid by aligning all aid spending with US interests. But that’s not what most Americans mean when they say they want to see reform - across both red and blue states, most Americans want to see US aid used in a way that prioritises reaching the most people in need, regardless of whether it supports US interests.
They don’t want to see America retreat from the world - support for multilateralism is still strong. Despite concerns that other countries aren’t pulling their weight when it comes to spending on aid or defense, Americans don’t want to retreat from the international stage. They want to see the US working cooperatively with other countries, including through the UN.
Americans want a reformed US aid program to be delivered through USAID, not the State Department. The argument as to whether US aid should be delivered through the independent USAID or folded into the State Department is largely a Washington insider debate - but if you ask the American people what they think, you’ll find widespread support for USAID.

The same old myths about US aid spending are dominating public opinion.

Myth 1: the US spends a huge share of the budget on aid. Despite consistently hovering at around 1% of the federal budget over the past 20 years, 1 in 5 Americans think we spend more than 20% of the budget on aid. This isn’t a new phenomenon - polling for years has shown similar results. Efforts to debunk this misconception simply haven’t cut through with the public.

Myth 2: Other countries don’t spend their fair share on aid. While it’s true that the US is the world’s largest bilateral provider of aid, when you compare aid budgets as a share of a country’s economy, the US falls to 25th place. Despite this reality, 51% of Americans think other rich countries do not provide their fair share in foreign aid (compared with just 12% who disagree). This is true for both Trump and Harris voters, and across all age groups.

Myth 3: Most foreign aid never reaches people in need because it is wasted on corruption or administration fees. 57% of Americans agree with the statement “most foreign aid never reaches people in need because it is wasted on corruption or administration fees” - this is true across all age groups and across both Trump and Harris voters. Unfortunately, we don’t have the data to be able to perfectly track the amount of aid money that gets lost to corruption. It’s safe to assume there are some funds lost along the way, but our best estimates suggest it is nowhere near the claims made by opponents of aid (such as when Senator Rand Paul claimed 70% of US aid is stolen off the top). One of the clearest ways to demonstrate the extent that aid spending actually reaches people in need is by looking at development outcomes over the last several years, for example:

1 in 3 people lived in extreme poverty in 1990, today this is less than 1 in 10;
Mortality rates for infants and children aged under 5 have been cut in half over the past 30 years;
Deaths from malaria fell by 37% between 2015 and 2023;
The US PEPFAR program has saved 17 million lives from HIV/AIDs.

Despite concerns about effectiveness, the American people still support US aid and want to see it continue.

Americans still support the principles of aid - 60% of Americans agree with the statement “it is right for richer countries to give money to help poorer countries”. This is true for both Trump and Harris voters.

And they want the US to continue providing aid. We asked the public “Which of the following comes closest to your view: After the 90 days is up, the US should restart a reformed foreign aid program, or; after the 90 days is up, foreign aid should remain frozen.” We found support for restarting US aid across the aisle - with the majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents in agreement.

To Americans, reformed aid means reaching the most people in need, not prioritising US interests.

Secretary Rubio, now acting Administrator for USAID, is focused on realigning all US aid with US foreign policy interests. Although Trump voters are more sympathetic to the “America First” angle, this shift doesn’t reflect the views of the majority of Americans. Across all age groups, Americans want US aid to focus on reaching the most people in need, regardless of whether it supports American interests.

They don’t want to see America retreat from the world - support for multilateralism is still strong.

Before the election we asked people whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “it is important for the United States to work together with all countries, even those with different values.” There was overwhelming support for international cooperation across people who intended to vote for both Trump and Harris, including by participating in the United Nations.

This is still true. When we asked Americans in February whether they thought countries should, in general, be working together to solve problems or focused on solving their own problems - 69% said countries should be working together. The tendency to think countries should work together rather than alone was true for both Trump and Harris voters.

Americans want a reformed US aid program to be delivered through USAID, not the State Department.

61% of Americans think the United States should have a dedicated government agency to manage its foreign assistance programs. Both Trump and Harris voters agree.

When you specify that this agency is called USAID, support drops slightly. This is mostly due to a drop in support from Trump voters, perhaps no surprise given the newscycle of the past few weeks - including Musk calling the agency ‘criminal’ and President Trump declaring it a waste of money and run by ‘lunatics’. However, even still - more Americans want to see USAID continue to deliver our aid rather than folding our aid programs into the State Department.

What’s next?

The aid community needs to rebuild public support for US aid. The basics are there - the public support the principles of aid and they want the US to help countries in need - but they need to be convinced that our aid is being spent well.

Three immediate next steps to help rebuild a wider coalition of support amongst the American public:

A large scale education campaign on international aid. Advocates for US aid need to urgently address the misconceptions around our aid spending, including how much we spend, what we spend it on, and how our contributions compare to other countries’ spending. We have known about the mismatch between the public perceptions and the reality of our aid spending for at least the last decade, and yet we have largely failed to correct the record.
Identifying new messages, messengers & mediums to communicate with the public. Americans across the political spectrum and across all age groups currently believe most of our aid spending never actually reaches people in need - whether that is based in truth or not, it is a remarkably damning evaluation of the sector’s ability to communicate its effectiveness to the public. The international aid sector needs to get creative in its public communications and think about new messages, new messengers and new mediums to cut through with the public.
Champion reforms to the aid budget that resonate with the public. Even supporters of US aid agree that reform is needed - a recent Devex poll showed that only 4% of USAID employees think no reform is needed. We tested the public’s response to a few potential reform options - the most popular were around improving transparency (67% support) and refocusing spending on things like emergency support (65% support) and social sectors - such as education, health, water and nutrition (67% support). The public also supports spending our aid budget in low income countries, not middle income countries (45% support) and eliminating aid to governments with poor human rights records (53% support). Americans across the aisle do want to see change, and the aid community can start taking control of the narrative by championing reform efforts that resonate with the public.

Americans Want to Fix US Aid, Not Scrap It