US to assist Myanmar following powerful quake

Patients are evacuated outdoors at a hospital after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, on March 28, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the destruction in Myanmar due to a powerful earthquake is “terrible” and his administration will assist the Southeast Asian country.

Trump said the United States had already contacted Myanmar. “We’re going to be helping,” he told reporters at the White House, without providing details.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked central Myanmar on Friday, killing at least 144 people and hurting more than 700 others, according to the country’s ruling military junta.

The full extent of the devastation caused by the quake remains unclear. Myanmar’s military ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, with the junta, now engaged in a civil war, tightly controlling information.

Following the quake, the head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said the death toll was expected to rise and the country welcomed international assistance.

Trump’s quick response to the junta’s call for aid came as Myanmar has faced Western sanctions and increased its reliance on China and Russia.

It also came as the State Department on Friday officially notified Congress it is effectively dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Trump administration has accused the agency of wasting taxpayer money by conducting programs abroad that are not in American interests.

But U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said USAID disaster experts are ready to provide immediate assistance to Myanmar, including food and safer drinking water.

“The United States is evaluating the need for assistance based on requests,” she told a press briefing.

The multibillion-dollar U.S. aid agency will be reorganized by July 1 and some of its functions will be transferred to the department.