US President Donald Trump's administration is looking to slash the State Department budget by about half, local media reports said.

An internal memorandum, which was first reported by the Washington Post on Monday, said the proposal for fiscal year 2026 would allocate $28.4 billion to the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which represents a decline of $27 billion from funding levels approved by Congress for 2025.

Humanitarian assistance would face cuts of 54 percent, while global health funding would fall by 55 percent, according to the memo.

While support for 20 international organisations, including NATO and the UN, would be eliminated, targeted contributions to a handful of organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Civil Aviation Authority, would continue.

The cuts would need to be approved by Congress, where they would likely face obstacles, even among Republican lawmakers.

Massive cuts

The deliberations come as the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency pursue a rapid and massive downsizing of the federal government, cutting billions of dollars in spending and terminating thousands of employees.

During Trump's first term, he proposed cutting about a third of US diplomacy and aid budgets. But Congress, which sets the federal US government budget, pushed back on Trump's proposal.

According to the notes, other proposals include eliminating more than a quarter of foreign assistance, eliminating global health funding other than small amounts for HIV, eliminating funding to the United Nations, eliminating the main office helping Afghan allies and cutting a number of refugee and immigration programmes.