Democrats slam Trump's federal FUNDING FREEZE!

The Trump administration’s moves to dismantle the U.S. agency that helps to fight starvation and poverty overseas has stoked fears that America will lose its standing on the world stage as rival powers rush to fill the void.

Concerns are growing in Washington that temporarily halting assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development “opens up a window for China and Russia,” George Ingram, a former senior USAID official, told NBC News in a telephone interview Thursday.

He was one of several experts to caution that the decision would lead to American influence waning in Africa, South America and Asia where it addresses a range of needs from health care to clean water, distributing aid to nongovernmental organizations, aid agencies and nonprofits. USAID has also provided millions of dollars in military aid to Israel and Ukraine.

“Nobody anticipated” that Trump would suspend most foreign aid “and then decapitate USAID of its personnel,” said Ingram, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.