ISTANBUL 

British politician Rory Stewart lashed out Wednesday at US President Donald Trump over the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding cuts, which are directly affecting his family.

On his podcast, The Rest Is Politics, Stewart said that Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a charity run by his wife, was to receive $1 million from USAID grants before Trump canceled the contract.

“He is behaving like a profoundly authoritarian almost a kind of absolute monarch,” Stewart said on his podcast, referring to Trump’s latest acts of firing executives of security services and “ripping up” international treaties.

He described these acts as “radical”.

In 2006, Stewart, a former Conservative Party politician, set up the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in partnership with former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales).

The foundation initially aimed to revive the traditional Afghan craft industry and later expanded its work to support artisans in other countries. His wife became CEO in 2006 and president in 2022.

All its contracts stopped upon Trump’s decision to shut down USAID operations, Stewart said, emphasizing the number of people losing their jobs.

The Trump administration, following suggestions from US tech billionaire Elon Musk — the head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — initiated the shutdown of USAID operations both domestically and internationally during his first week in office.

The move has led to widespread disruptions in global aid programs, affecting many non-governmental organizations and media organizations that relied on the agency's funding.

USAID was established by former US President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Later, Congress established USAID as an independent agency.

Trump’s legal ability to block its work with an executive order is facing several legal challenges.

On Thursday night, a US federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign aid spending.

Other court decisions have also blocked the US government from effectively dismantling USAID, reversing the decision to put thousands of the agency’s employees on administrative leave, at least temporarily.