A year after the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development, most Americans still support ​foreign aid to provide disaster relief, prevent disease outbreaks and improve security, according to a new poll commissioned ‌by the Rockefeller Foundation and released Tuesday.

The poll of 2,022 voters showed Republicans and President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again base were skeptical of foreign aid before getting more details.

Nearly all Americans overestimated by far how much Washington spent on such programs, with over a third thinking they ​accounted for 20 per cent of the annual US budget.

When told that foreign aid accounted for just 1 per cent of the US ​budget before 2025 and briefed on what it accomplished, Americans’ support grew to 70 per cent from 54 per cent, ⁠the poll showed. Republican support reached 58%, and even MAGA Republicans, defined as those who primarily support Trump over the party, ​backed aid by 50 per cent, the foundation said.

Trump, who made cutting off foreign aid a cornerstone of his “America First” campaign promises, ordered the closure ​of USAID when he took office in January 2025.

Well over 10,000 USAID personnel and contractors were fired and thousands of programs were canceled, throwing into turmoil US-funded aid operations on which millions of the world’s poorest people depended. US foreign aid disbursements dropped to $47 billion in fiscal year 2025 ​from $72 billion a year earlier, US data shows.

Read: USAID cancellation — an opportunity in adversity?

Those cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to ​a study published in The Lancet medical journal last year.

The poll, conducted June 12-16 by Echelon Insights, showed that 78 per cent of those surveyed favored ‌maintaining or expanding foreign aid outlays.

“This data is a direct rebuttal to anyone who claims Americans have lost their appetite for the world,” said John Gans, a former Pentagon speechwriter and project lead at The Rockefeller Foundation.

“One year after USAID’s razing, a majority of Americans don’t just want to ensure federal funding to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and respond to crises around the world; they see good reason to increase it”.

MAGA voters, who started as the most sceptical of any group, showed a 27-point swing toward supporting foreign aid once they were given more information, the poll showed.

Republicans supported restoring aid to fight the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo by 62 per cent to 24 per cent after getting more data, including experts’ view that US funding cuts were a significant factor in the rapid spread of the disease. MAGA voters supported that view by 52 per cent to 34 per cent.

Read more: Curtain finally falls on USAID

The Trump administration has responded to the widening outbreak and is seeking more than $1.4billion in new funds from Congress to help fight it.

The ​poll, taken on June 12 to June 16, showed that support for foreign ​aid increased sharply when voters were asked about specific programs, such as disease prevention and peacekeeping, with 80 per cent saying they favored reforms and adding better safeguards, ​not cancellation.

Only 12 per cent said foreign aid should be cut across the board regardless of impact.