By: Gabriel León
USAID may not have been the most well-known department of the executive branch, but it sure is important.
USAID stands for United States Agency for International Development. The goal of USAID is clearly stated on what is now an archived website: “On behalf of the American people, we promote and demonstrate democratic values abroad and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. In support of America's foreign policy, the U.S. Agency for International Development leads the U.S. Government's international development and disaster assistance through partnerships and investments that save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, and help people emerge from humanitarian crises and progress beyond assistance.”
USAID was the backbone for many countries around the world in their path to becoming a democracy. In some cases, other nations needed assistance getting back on their feet after a national disaster or combating a disease; USAID was there to provide that assistance. Of the $38 billion spent by USAID in 2023, $20 billion was explicitly for health programs and humanitarian aid.
Ever since its creation under President John F. Kennedy, USAID has garnered bipartisan support. This is because, as USAID administrator under President Joe Biden, Samantha Powers stated, “USAID is the only exposure to the U.S. many people from around the world get.”
When that exposure is combating malaria or ebola in the Congo or rebuilding Syria after the fall of Assad’s regime, it gives the U.S. something called political capital in these developing countries. Political capital is extremely important because it helps further U.S. national security goals.
For example, political capital means that leaders from such countries will be more likely to allow U.S. companies into their nation, extradite criminals to the U.S., or send peacekeepers to a zone of conflict. USAID has been the human element of U.S. foreign policy for the past six decades, and without it, the U.S. will fall from its perch at the top of the food chain in international relations.
If USAID promotes democracy, gives the U.S. a good image around the world, garners political capital, and keeps the U.S. at the forefront of international politics, why on earth would President Donald Trump want to dismantle it? Trump wants to keep the U.S. at the top, doesn’t he?
The answer to those questions seems to lie in what he campaigned on. Trump promised to put “America First,” and what that means to him and his supporters is returning the U.S. to its isolationist ways. Isolationism in politics means that a country is solely responsible for itself and its own interests.
President Trump’s logic behind his dismantling of USAID is that U.S. taxpayers should not be paying to promote democracy and development elsewhere in the world, which at first glance does not necessarily seem like a bad thing. But President Trump grossly misunderstands the importance of the U.S. and its involvement in development worldwide because it is that involvement that has kept the U.S. as the most powerful nation in the world ever since the end of World War II.
President Trump does not want to see it that way. In an official fact sheet on the official White House website, his administration claims that USAID sent $6 million to Egypt to promote tourism. In reality, that grant was not only approved under President Trump’s first administration but made no mention of tourism.
The grant had the goal to “increase educational opportunities and strengthen the livelihoods of the people of North Sinai” and “provide access to transportation for rural communities and economic livelihood programming for families.” Elements of this grant were conveniently left out on the website for the White House and in the press secretary’s briefing. This is just one example of many misleading claims made by Trump’s administration regarding USAID.
President Trump’s administration has continually weaponized diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to attack agencies and ideas that do not suit their radical agenda; the same is the case here.
This is a victory for the autocracy because it will take the U.S. out of the world’s game and slowly allow for another nation like China or Russia—both of whom celebrated efforts to dismantle USAID—to become the main player on the world stage.
Powers beautifully sums this up, stating that, “Unless these cruel and immensely counterproductive actions are reversed by the administration—or Republicans in Congress join Democrats in an effort to roll them back—future generations will marvel that it wasn’t China’s actions that eroded U.S. standing and global security, paving the way for Beijing to become the partner of choice around the world. Instead, it was an American president and the billionaire he unleashed to shoot first and aim later, eliminating an institution that is a cost-effective example of what once distinguished the United States from our adversaries.”
This is a victory for the autocracy because it was Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency that incited this dismantling, setting themselves up for prosperity while leaving the average American to reap the consequences of these awful decisions.
I thought President Trump’s campaign slogan was “Make AMERICA Great Again,” not remove it from the world stage and allow for our biggest adversaries to take the wheel while we are over here renaming gulfs and gutting DEI initiatives while grocery prices soar and our credibility on the global stage plummets.
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