Trump's administration reportedly planning 'dramatic' cuts to foreign aid budget

Donald Trump's administration is intending to propose "dramatic" cuts to foreign aid, according to a White House official.

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, said the full spending budget would be available by the end of March and would include some "fairly dramatic" cuts to foreign aid.

"We are going to propose to reduce foreign aid and we are going to propose to spend that money here," he said in an interview with Fox News.

Mulvaney added: "When we talk about changing a particular aid program, it may have impact in various different nations.

"The overriding message is fairly straightforward, which is, less money spent on folks overseas, more money spent on folks back home."

Trump has alluded to the fact the foreign aid budget would be cut – stating in several speeches the US opts to protect and aid other countries where it should be helping itself, also using the same suggestion to argue for increased spending on defence.

The president has said in the last week that a full budget will include $54 billion of cuts to "most federal agencies", CNN reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to lose up to a quarter of its budget, several sources told the channel, while most "lower priority programs and most federal agencies" will see cuts.

However, the budget is expected to propose increases to the defence budget to $603 billion.