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By Our Reporter

US President Donald Trump has started implementing what he had said during his election campaign last year.

After swearing in as the 47th president of the US on January 20, Trump is now in action by issuing over a hundred executive orders.

He started deportation of the illegal migrant inviting a brief tussle with Colombia on Monday after Colombia denied landing of the US Army plane carrying its citizens to Bogota. But the issue was settled after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the goods imported from Colombia. The Trump administration also deported illegal migrants from Brazil.

He fired over a dozen justice department lawyers who worked on criminal cases against him and pardoned 1,500 criminal defendants charged in the Capitol attack.

Moreover, Trump, under his America First slogan, suspended all US aid for 90 days.

Nepal has also been affected by the suspension of US aid.

In a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said it suspended financial assistance to Nepal.

USAID Nepal has written to the Ministry of Finance informing that grant assistance received for four projects has been suspended for 90 days, according to a statement issued by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, Mahesh Bhattarai on Monday.  

According to Bhattarai, USAID Nepal has informed through a letter that the grant assistance received by Nepal through the Development Objective Agreement (DOAG) signed between USAID and the government of Nepal on May 5, 2022, which is paid from the consolidated fund through the budget system (On-Budget On-Treasury), has been suspended for 90 days for four projects. 

The suspended four projects include USAID Health Direct Financing Project, USAID Agricultural Direct Financing Project, USAID Education Direct Financing Project and USAID Inclusive Policy Direct Financing Project.

The ministry has informed all concerned agencies not to create any liabilities towards USAID resources under the suspended projects for the coming 90 days.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the Office of Spokesperson of the US Department of State on Sunday said that consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, Secretary Rubio had paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for review. 

However, the US has not said anything about the fate of MCC project which is in the implementation phase in Nepal.