Abstract

On January 20th, 2025, the world imploded when President Donald J. Trump signed the Executive Order 14169: “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” imposing a 90-day pause on U.S. foreign development assistance. E.O. 14169 exposed structural flaws in the governance of U.S. foreign assistance with far reaching legal, ethical, and geopolitical consequences. Federally mandated foreign assistance has been the foundation of the United States soft power, and a catalyzer for dialogue on the world stage. While limited in its scope the following note touches upon the reach of executive power and international collaboration in the context of food security. What follows is an analysis of the legal implications of the E.O based on the Impoundment Control Act, the Anti Deficiency Act as well as the Take Care Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This note will briefly introduce two cases: AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. United States and Global Health Council v. Trump (D.D.C.) as examples of the litigation landscape under the E.O. The note is merely an overview to a complex myriad of problems and what is a dynamically developing situation related to how the U.S. will reimagine foreign aid and prioritize domestic food production. Considering a rapidly changing food aid landscape, new international partnerships will be forged as the international community bears witness to the unfolding of a new world order. It is an opportune moment for legal scholarship to examine the lack of U.S. federal assistance with respect to food aid.