Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze: A Step in the Right Direction

On January 24, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered an immediate freeze on virtually all US foreign aid and issued a “stop-work” order on current grants and contracts, effective immediately. It was the start of what promises to be one of the major policy changes on US foreign aid during his administration. This is a step in the right direction as it shows an understanding of the negative consequences of an interventionist government and places emphasis on personal responsibility.

Washington: An Empire of Grift

In 1992, Murray Rothbard outlined a strategy for confronting the American regime that relied on transforming critiques of state intervention into a full front culture war. In his words, the intellectual battle “must necessarily be a strategy of boldness and confrontation, of dynamism and excitement, a strategy, in short, of rousing the masses from their slumber and exposing the arrogant elites that are ruling them, controlling them, taxing them, and ripping them off.”

How the Rise of National Citizenship Laws Built the Modern State

As immigration levels have grown in many Western countries, concerns over the politically destabilizing effects of large-scale migration have prompted a continuing debate over citizenship. As we’ve noted here at mises.org, many European states have consequently moved toward greater restrictions on citizenship. Other states, such as the United States and Canada, have yet to embrace any new limitations on naturalization laws.

Puerto Rico Parallels with Venezuela

The federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy declaration by the Puerto Rican (PR) government in May 2017 was the first time a US sovereign territory declared insolvency with $72 billion of debt. PR, over time, borrowed money for several government bond issues, bond payments were not timely made, ongoing inappropriate spending of taxpayer dollars, and not investing in upkeep of government-owned electricity and public water supply infrastructure.