USIP headquarters building.

The Trump budget would completely zero out funding for the U.S. Institute for Peace, contributing a whopping $35 million to its $15.2 billion in proposed cuts. (Wikipedia photo)

The Trump administration’s 2018 budget request is out. Though the next year’s budget request to Congress is normally due the first Monday in February, a new administration is traditionally given a few months (usually until sometime in April) to come up with the whole thing.

The document that came out today is called the “skinny budget,” because it contains very little detail. We don’t know yet what worldwide programs would be cut by how much—much less which countries would get what.

What we can see today is skinny, but it’s horrifying. It proposes cutting all diplomacy and foreign assistance by 29 percent in one year: from $52.8 billion in 2016 to $37.6 billion in 2018.

Imagine that: trying to slice nearly one out of every three dollars from all embassies and all assistance, both military and economic, worldwide. Abruptly, for a fiscal year that starts on October 1.

By the time this gets through Congress, there will probably be cuts, though they won’t be this deep. Leading Republican appropriators, especially Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), chairman of the subcommittee that drafts the foreign aid bill, have already objected. (The phrase Graham used was “dead on arrival.”)

But for now, imagine that it was your job to cut this key government function by nearly one-third, as the White House proposes. Here are the diplomacy and foreign aid accounts, as they appeared in the 2016 State and Foreign Operations budget appropriation [PDF]. (That’s the last time Congress passed a budget bill; we currently continue at 2016 levels.) What on earth would you cut to get down to $37.6 billion?

Item (including “overseas contingency” funds) Amount, millions of US$
All administration of foreign affairs (diplomacy, embassy security, cultural programs, etc.) 11,439
Global Health Programs 8,503
Foreign Military Financing 6,026
($3.1 billion of the above account goes to Israel, and the Trump administration’s 2018 budget proposal won’t cut it.)
Economic Support Fund 4,318
Migration and Refugee Assistance 3,059
International Disaster Assistance 2,794
Development Assistance 2,781
Contributions to international peacekeeping missions 2,461
USAID administration 1,517
Contributions to all international organizations (UN, OAS, etc.) 1,446
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement 1,267
World Bank International Development Association 1,197
(Everything below this row makes up only 13 percent of the total)
Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia 930
Millennium Challenge Corporation 901
Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining and Related Programs 885
International broadcasting 750
Peacekeeping Operations 600
Peace Corps 410
Assistance through international organizations 339
African Development Bank 210
World Bank International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 187
World Bank Clean Technology Fund 171
National Endowment for Democracy 170
World Bank Global Environment Facility 168
Democracy Fund 151
International commissions 123
International Military Education and Training 108
Asian Development Fund 105
Inter-American Development Bank 102
U.S.-Mexico Boundary and Water Commission 74
Transition Initiatives 67
Trade and Development Agency 60
Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund 50
World Bank Strategic Climate Fund 50
Global Agriculture and Food Security Program 43
United States Institute of Peace 35
International Fund for Agricultural Development 32
U.S. African Development Foundation 30
USAID Complex Crises Fund 30
International Affairs Technical Assistance 24
Inter-American Foundation 23
Asia Foundation 17
East-West Center 17
North American Development Bank 10
Development Credit Authority 8
Asian Development Bank 6
Commission on International Religious Freedom 4
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 4
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe 3
Congressional-Executive Commission on the People’s Republic of China 2
Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad 1