Notes from the Faultline LinkedIn newsletter, 7 May 2026
Luke Lindberg, the US nominee to succeed Cindy McCain at the helm of the World Food Programme after her departure at the end of May, was captured scouting for the most “iconic” photographic angle. This is the same Luke Lindberg who has publicly committed to dismantling what he calls the global NGO complex. He is a Fellow at the America First Policy Institute and currently serves as USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
One year into his second term, Trump has accelerated the global realignment in which the deliberate withdrawal from international cooperation has produced a more fractured order. As a result of this “rupture,” the United Nations is under sustained pressure and, meanwhile, China is methodically filling the vacuum.
And yet there is one piece of multilateral architecture the United States is determined not to let go: the leadership of the World Food Programme.
The US have led WFP since 1992, when Catherine Bertini became the first American Executive Director. It rested on a coherent if crude proposition. The United States was overwhelmingly the largest donor to WFP, providing between forty and sixty per cent of its annual funding across two decades. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) used to be an essential partner of WFP. With USAID and WFP, alongside the contributions to WFP of European allies and their development aid schemes, US leadership was legitimate.
Both the funding and the legitimacy are now gone.
Notes from the Faultline · WFP Donor Analysis
WFP contributions as a share of GDP
Each line traces one country across three periods. Y axis on a log scale. Hover any line to isolate it. Blue = increased P2→P3 · Red = decreased · Brown = 2025 data only
Sources: WFP.org annual contribution pages. GDP: World Bank/IMF approximate period averages. Log scale preserves readability across a 35× range of values (0.001% to 0.040%). ★ P3 = 2025 data only (Norway, France). Hover any line or label to highlight that country.
Access data used on absolute contributions to WFP, contribution per capita, and contribution as per cent of GDP (sources: WFP.org annual contribution pages; GDP: World Bank/IMF approximate period averages).