To read the vilification of USAID by the Trump administration, you’d think it was a terrorist organization. It isn’t.
Please note that there’s so much information available about this situation that I’ve just linked it to the headlines. Otherwise, this article would be a book.
The USAID site appears to have been shut down. (That link is to a 404.) There are various tales about the workforce being told to stay home. It looks like a real mess.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio says he’s running this agency, which has no presence at all. Folksy, huh?
USAID is one of the biggest aid organizations in the world, managing about half of US aid. It was created under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as the governing agency. JFK gave the executive order for its establishment.
USAID has never previously been considered an ideological issue by anyone. It’s a provider of aid to alleviate poverty and socioeconomic development all over the world. This dates from the time when America wasn’t run by petty-minded peasants. You’ll note the flag says “From the American people”. Presumably that was from the time when people could afford to be Americans.
Foreign aid is a major bugbear for the administration. IT’s an easy target for illiterate xenophobia. Trump is said to be considering merging it with the State Department. Presumably, neither agency has enough work. The State Department will certainly have a lot less work given the Trump administration’s apparently preferred hostile relationships with other countries
Musk said it’s run by “radical lunatics”. There’s a claim the funds are used to support terrorist organizations. Says the country that funded various South American dictatorships, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Fortunately, the administration isn’t on speaking terms with US intelligence agencies or anyone else, so that’s OK.

Meh.
When you’ve been accusing just about everyone in the US of being radical lunatics for decades, it loses impact. It’s like “radical leftists”. They’ve gone so far to the right that everyone else is on the left.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much political effort to discredit America in the eyes of the world and the American people. 2026 isn’t that far away. You can lose the Congressional majority and have it all swept away in one day.
There’s a much less rhetorical take on all this self-righteous hysteria about USAID.
It’s the USAID budget for 2025, which is about $42.5 billion. Money, Nothing much is about anything but money, you know.
Compared to the black hole formerly known as the US budget, that’s barely even peanuts. American consumers spend that much every day, about $1.2 billion an hour last time anyone looked.
Of all possible petty-minded, inept, ultra-anti-American options, this would be a top choice. It ends decades of goodwill and positive American imagery worldwide. It deprives poor people of the help they desperately need. Also known as “policy” these days.
It does this while failing totally to even scratch America’s real budgetary needs and problems on any level. That $42.5 billion is barely a light breeze against the giant hurricanes of serious government financial issues.
Why not just sell every minute of American history and heritage and call it saving money?
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
