This paper situates current trends in American humanitarian aid in Iraq within a broader history of international minority protection, considering how Western powers created and continue to selectively apply minorities treaties and international conventions such as “Responsibility to Protect” to advance their interests both at home and abroad. Though presented as a way of defending the rights of disempowered entities, and often executed on the ground by idealist bureaucrats, this type of interference often contributes to pre-existing tensions between different groups within heterogeneous nations such as Iraq. Recent Trump administration actions to directly interfere in USAID allocation of funds to Christian communities in Iraq recall British moves to host Assyrian Christian refugees in Iraq during World War I and employ them in the colonial army known as the Levies. In both cases, Western economic and political policy aims in the country have coexisted and frequently overlapped with a simplistic dichotomy, one that views Iraq’s non-Muslim minorities in general, and Christians in particular, as a particularly-aggrieved population in need of special protection. The goal of this paper is to better understand (1) how foreign intervention in Iraq has created and exacerbated tensions between various ethnic and religious groups and (2) the roots and manifestations of favoritism towards particular groups. In addition to consulting the British archives and information from current media and research organizations as well as USAID reports, the authors conducted interviews with current and former U.S. government employees working in Iraq, and analyzed survey data on how the Iraqi population views U.S. foreign aid. While overall aid to Iraq decreased under the Trump administration, the newly launched Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response program allocated $354 million to ethnic minorities in the country who were targeted by ISIS, continuing a trend of geographic concentration in the distribution of aid in Iraq. Aspects of Trump administration policies may significantly shift with the change in presidential administrations, but the billions of dollars allocated under these recovery efforts will continue to influence developments and societal relationships within Iraq for years to come.