U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance attend a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
(Washington, DC) – Vice President J. D. Vance dropped a political bombshell this week, claiming the White House has confirmed that just 12% of U.S. foreign aid actually reaches the people it’s meant to help – with the rest swallowed by what critics call the NGO Industrial Complex.
In a viral video, Vance said Americans have been misled for decades about how humanitarian aid works.
“Every dollar we were spending on humanitarian assistance,” Vance said, “only 12 cents was actually making it to the people who needed it.”
According to Vance, the problem isn’t generosity, it’s layers of bureaucracy and middlemen. He explained that aid dollars are routinely passed from one organization to another before ever reaching the ground.
“Most people think we send $100,000 to buy food for poor kids in Africa,” Vance said. “What actually happens? The NGO contracts it to somebody else… then somebody else. There are three or four middlemen.”
Vance attributed the estimate to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying Rubio told him his best calculation showed that 88 cents of every aid dollar is absorbed by contractors, administrators, and NGOs before it ever helps a civilian.
