DETROIT LAKES — What goes on in Washington, D.C. often seems abstract or irrelevant to Becker County. So the news about the start of the new Trump Administration may be written off by many as just something that affects politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, not those who live in the "real" world.
But what is happening in Washington will be felt in Becker and counties nearby in Minnesota and North Dakota — and beyond. A good example of this is Elon Musk's attack on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). President Trump has called it corrupt and said it is led by "left-wing lunatics," while Elon Musk has posted on social media that USAID is " a criminal enterprise" that he is "feeding it into the woodchipper."
USAID was created by President Kennedy and subsequently codified in statute by the Congress. It has been a key national security tool for every president since, and Congress has provided its funding, as well as active oversight of its work, including frequent budget earmarks.
USAID provides international assistance in a variety of ways: It responds to international disasters, such as famines and floods, collaborates with others to isolate outbreaks of communicable diseases, and promotes economic development in poor countries, which helps those countries and develops potential markets for U.S. products, services, and crops. It also promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights as important for sustainable economic development.
USAID works overseas, but it also has an impact in America. USAID purchases some $2 billion per year in American food crops to support its disaster and humanitarian assistance work. For decades it has also played a key role in developing new markets for American crops, such as corn in Central America.
So Elon Musk is feeding a significant amount of U.S. agricultural exports into that woodchipper along with USAID. That might affect farmers in and around Otter Tail County.
Much of the work USAID does overseas is done through American-based contractors, some of the most significant of which are faith-based groups, such as CRS (formerly Catholic Relief Services) and World Vision. Save the Children is another example of a U.S.-based NGO that implements USAID programs overseas.
People in this community have been contributing to such groups for many years and care about the work they do to make the world a better and safer place. Finally, there are people in and around Becker Country who currently work for or have worked in the past with USAID. We know them as neighbors and friends who are committed to public service and helping others.
As a State Department Foreign Service officer and as an ambassador appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents, I have worked with USAID in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
USAID staff are professionals, often with PhDs; they are not "lunatics" and they do what their political leadership directs. USAID programs vary from one presidential administration to another because presidential policy priorities change.
Having been through seven changes in presidential administrations, I can say with certainty that every new administration reviewed the USAID programs it had inherited and then made changes it felt were needed. Not once, however, did any past presidential administration shut down all programs while it made a policy review, or seek to abolish the agency outright. USAID staff have always developed new programs to meet a new administration's new priorities.
America is engaged with China in a competition over whether the international system as forged by America and its democratic allies after World War II will continue or be replaced by something more favorable to China and other states that do not share our values.
As we pursue American interests internationally, we have three key tools: defense, diplomacy, and development. Elon Musk's goal of feeding USAID into a woodchipper is like unilateral disarmament — and will create opportunities for China to exploit.
Congressional representatives, particularly from districts with farming interests, should insist that — until the Congress says otherwise — USAID exists and its Congressionally-appropriated programs should continue, until such time as the Trump Administration has prepared a budget request for USAID operations in the coming fiscal year based on a policy review of current USAID funding and programs.
That is the way a responsible government should operate, rather than by posting unfounded lies on social media that undo decades of hard work for America.