Six Months Into His Presidency, Trump Has Created a Global Humanitarian Catastrophe

July 19, 2025

Olivier de Schutter

As the UN’s independent expert on poverty, I am no stranger to harrowing statistics. But few numbers have shaken me like those emerging in the wake of the Trump administration’s suspension of U.S. foreign aid. According to new estimates published in The Lancet, these funding cuts could result in more than 14 million deaths by 2030, a third of them young children.

People carrying sacks of flour walk along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on June 17, 2025, after humanitarian aid trucks reportedly entered the northern Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing.

(Photo by Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)