Ambassador Mike Waltz says US is replacing foreign aid with trade deals

SPECIAL: The Trump administration is laying out its clearest plan yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S. foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade and American commerce, not taxpayer-funded aid, should be the main engine of American development abroad.

At the U.S. Mission to the United Nations “Business on Aid” forum in New York on Monday, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the administration has “completely reformed the way we do aid” by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private sector-led development.

“For many years, the United States and other countries have poured billions of dollars into these aid programs and received little in return,” Waltz said. “You go to these forums at the United Nations and development agencies around the world and you never find the private sector. You find NGOs, academics and governments, but you don’t find the creators of growth and the creators of jobs.”

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Waltz said the new model is designed to “create jobs, create jobs for American companies along the lines of America First,” while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.

The administration has moved to disband USAID in 2025, arguing that the agency is inefficient and often disconnected from U.S. foreign policy. Asked directly whether “Trade Over Aid” would replace USAID, Waltz said USAID’s functions were being transferred to the State Department as part of a broader efficiency effort, but insisted the initiative was about something bigger than a single agency.

“What we are doing is not about USAID or what will replace it,” Waltz said. “This was an effective effort to get our aid to serve our foreign policy, not the other way around. But I think what’s more important is how we help American businesses and help create jobs and reduce dependency around the world.”

The risks are immediate: With USAID reorganized within the State Department and aid budgets under pressure, the Trump administration is trying to show that the United States has an alternative model for how to help poorer and more fragile countries. His answer is not more traditional aid but more private capital, more trade, more deals for American companies and fewer open-ended commitments from taxpayers.

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The forum brought together representatives from dozens of countries, UN agencies, international financial institutions and major private sector players including Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Walmart, Mastercard, Meta and others.

Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny, who attended the forum, said the idea resonated with his country’s own post-communist experience.

He said that after communism, the Czech Republic should be rebuilt through work, trade, industry and innovation rather than dependency.

Ambassador Dan Negrea addresses the U.S. Mission at the United Nations “Trade over Aid” forum in New York on July 13, 2026. (Donald Conahan/US mission to the UN)

“If you work on your economy, your industry, your society, and also nature, you’re probably going to be in a better position two, three, five years from now,” Cerveny told Fox News Digital. “You have your own money. You are no longer a slave (to wanting). You are now the master of your destiny.”

Cerveny said trade gives countries “the opportunity to cooperate” rather than forcing them to come back again and again with the same demand: “Please give me some money.”

Ambassador Dan Negrea, who is leading the initiative at the U.S. Mission, told Fox News Digital that shrinking aid budgets around the world necessitate a new model.

“In an environment where we are in debt in the United States and can’t continue to spend money to help other countries like we used to, we need to think differently about how we can help developing countries,” Negrea said. he said. “Development aid is declining not just in the United States but in countries around the world.”

Negrea said the initiative has seen less resistance from developing countries than from traditional donor countries.

“Interestingly, there is less return from the countries that receive aid than some of the donor countries, who like to maintain that philanthropic attitude by being generous to other countries,” he told Fox News Digital. “For years, many developing countries have been saying that they want to end this philanthropic status and move to a much more dignified relationship of partners and development.”

But some leaders from developing countries also warn that trade cannot replace aid overnight, especially in emergencies. Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Francophonie of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told Fox News Digital that aid is critical in crises such as the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Aid can sometimes change the situation dramatically,” he said. “This is not something you can change overnight with trade. But yes, in the long run, trade is the way to create more growth, more economic prosperity and therefore more equal relations between countries.”

Kayikwamba Wagner added that the transition must be “adapted to the circumstances” and should not be “too sudden”.

The initiative has already drawn 46 countries and launched a digital library of 63 capacity building proposals from private companies, governments, NGOs, charities, academic institutions and international organisations.

But when asked what these proposals have produced so far, Negrea acknowledged that the initiative is still in its early stages. He said the library opened last week and now the goal is to turn the proposals into concrete results.

“We want to see more deliveries,” Negrea said. “We want to see actual transactions being made. We want to see countries using the digital library to see available capacity building proposals from around the world. So we want to help U.S. taxpayers without cost, but also create opportunities for American companies.”

The key challenge facing this effort is whether private capital will traditionally go to places where aid is needed most: fragile countries with weak institutions, unreliable infrastructure, corruption, conflict or markets that are too risky for big investors.

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Ambassador Dan Negrea is moderating a panel at the US Mission to the United Nations’ “Trade on Aid” forum in New York, with Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny and other participants. (Donald Conahan/US mission to the UN)

Waltz argued that institutions such as the UN Development Programme, the World Bank and the US International Development Finance Corporation could play a role at this point.

“When we talk to organizations like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others, they say we want to invest hundreds of millions in these industries abroad, but they need better laws, better arbitration,” Waltz said. “We need to know that we can get our money out for our investors in the United States.”

He said the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and US contributions to the World Bank could provide “risk insurance and guarantees” for investments in riskier markets, including critical mining projects needed by the US technology sector.

“This is incredibly risky,” Waltz said. “Capital providers like Wall Street and New York sometimes just go to the safest place. Sometimes it makes sense to go to risky places, such as when looking for critical minerals for our tech industry, but they need some help.”

The strongest warning came not from critics outside the room, but from within the forum itself.

Former Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo, who now leads the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said trade and aid should not be treated as enemies.

“Trade is a goal, but development is how we achieve that goal,” De Croo said. “Markets don’t build themselves. They have to be built.”

Investment flows when rules are predictable, institutions are trusted and employees have the skills to seize opportunities, De Croo said. He described UNDP’s role as helping countries build these foundations. “There is no country that has developed successfully in recent years without a strong private sector and without trade being a big part of that,” he said.

Christopher Sharrock, Microsoft’s vice president for the United Nations and international organizations, also warned that aid still had a role that markets could not fully replace.

“Aid does a very important job, and it does a job that probably nothing else can do,” Sharrock said, pointing to vaccination campaigns, the fight against famine and natural disasters as areas where aid remains critical.

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UNDP administrator and former Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo speaks at the US Mission to the United Nations’ “Trade on Aid” forum in New York on July 13, 2026. (Donald Conahan/US mission to the UN)

For the Trump administration, “Trade on Aid” is touted as the more disciplined, America First response to development: less aid, more deals, less dependency, more jobs for American companies and foreign partners.

But the test will be whether it can deliver not just in countries already ready for investment, but also in the hardest-hit places (where aid has long filled the gap because markets have failed to do so).