By Pascal Ibe

“He never did; he just put every foreign aid on hold.”

“No, he didn’t.

“If this is true then he did well”.

These were the comments that trailed the claim that Trump has reversed the foreign aid ban.

Many people were in doubt over this claim.

On 30 January 2025, an X user, @Morris_Monye claimed that Trump has reversed the foreign aid ban.

The post generated over  165k views and more than 2k likes, according to X analytics.

Background

A few days ago,  President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on domestic and foreign federal aid in a sweeping effort to stop government funding for causes that don’t fit with his agenda.

A memo sent out Monday night from Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the changes would go into effect at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday and relate to a string of executive orders Trump has signed since taking office last week.

“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” Vaeth said.

The memo said the pause in aid, such as grants and loans, would allow “time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities.”

The memo, which could affect billions of dollars in aid, noted an exception for Social Security and Medicare and direct payments to individuals, saying those benefits would not be affected.

Verification

In a report by Reuters on Wednesday, the Trump administration on Wednesday revoked a controversial directive that ordered a temporary freeze in federal assistance programs, after widespread confusion and a court-ordered partial pause of the sweeping initiative.

In an explainer by Forbes, the Trump administration released a one-sentence memo Wednesday that told agencies the directive has been revoked, according to multiple reports, though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the freeze itself was still in place, and only the initial memo ordering the directives had been rescinded to “end any confusion.”

On Tuesday, a  United States judge temporarily blocked an order from President Donald Trump to freeze funding for a wide range of federal programs 

Validating this further, the United States government approved an “emergency humanitarian waiver” to support US-funded HIV treatment in 55 countries, including Nigeria.

US President Donald Trump recently ordered a funding pause for HIV treatment in developing countries as part of an executive order on foreign aid.

But the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS, in a statement on Wednesday, said the US government approved a waiver that allows people living with HIV to continue accessing treatment.

“UNAIDS welcomes this waiver from the US government which ensures that millions of people living with HIV can continue to receive life-saving HIV medication during the assessment of US foreign development assistance,” the statement reads.

Verdict

This claim is partially Correct.

The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the freeze itself was still in place, and only the initial memo ordering the directives had been rescinded to “end any confusion.” To this end, the US government’s latest approval for an “emergency humanitarian waiver” to support US-funded HIV treatment in 55 countries, validates the claim that Trump has partially reversed the foreign aid ban.