The Destruction of USAID
By W. Robert Pearson - August 2025
How to Cause Innocent Deaths, Save Little Money, Betray Our Legacy and Help Our Adversaries
The
final destruction of USAID by President Trump in early July 2025 is the
greatest strategic surrender of global American influence in the 80
years since the end of WWII.
Millions of Deaths – Microscopic Budgetary Gain
A
June 30 article in The Lancet, among the oldest and most prestigious
British medical journals dedicated to scientific research, estimated
“that over the past two decades, USAID-funded programmes have helped
prevent more than 91 million deaths globally, including 30 million
deaths among children. Projections suggest that ongoing deep funding
cuts—combined with the potential dismantling of the agency—could result
in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million
deaths among children younger than 5 years.”
Founded in 1961 by
John F. Kennedy, the organization represented the depth and breadth of
much of America’s soft power for 64 years. It was specifically designed
to show that America had a side other than its military strength. It was
founded to demonstrate the values of American life and the desire to
extend benefits to other countries cooperating with us.
According
to reports of funds requested, USAID asked for $19.6 billion in 2021,
$27.7 billion in 2022, $29.4 billion in 2023, and $32 billion in 2024.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the federal
government spent $6.8 trillion in 2024. The USAID budget of $32 billion
divided by 6.8 trillion was 0.00470588235% of the federal budget.
If
the federal budget was 1 dollar in 2024 the USAID budget was 4 tenths
of 1 penny. If we look at just the interest on the national debt to be
paid by US taxpayers in 2025 based on Congressional Budget Office
projections, the total will reach $952 billion in 2025. By this measure,
the USAID budget of last year could fit nearly 30 times within the
amount of interest to be paid on the national debt this year. While we
actually don’t know yet how much the whole federal government will spend
this year for a number of reasons, we do know the national debt is
projected by some to grow by as much as $4 trillion to $5 trillion over
the next decade.
The American people have been conned for decades
over the issue of peaceful assistance overseas. Senators and
Representatives have campaigned back home about “waste” in Washington,
often citing “foreign aid” and promising to clean it up. More than
occasionally, they have waved the red flag of foreign aid waste to
distract attention from their own spending on new programs that
ballooned our national debt. As a result, out there in the vastness of
public opinion in America, “foreign aid” became for many a dirty word
and an image easily manipulated.
It is no surprise therefore that
Americans generally think that 25 percent of the federal budget goes to
foreign aid when it is less than 1 percent. The Trump administration
knew this arithmetic yet deliberately set out to destroy an organization
using the lies of waste, fraud, and mismanagement. On the level of
ill-conceived decisions with consequential and dangerous short and
long-term results, shutting down USAID wins the prize.
Serving in
Ankara as ambassador, I learned an excellent Turkish proverb: “It takes
a master architect to build a beautiful mosque; it only takes one man
with a pick to destroy it.” That is precisely what the Trump
administration has done – one arrogant, wholly uninformed,
unaccountable, non-government private entrepreneur billionaire with no
government experience shattered an American masterpiece.
On
February 3, 2025, Elon Musk said he had spent the weekend feeding USAID
through the “woodchipper” rather than going to “some great parties”.
Elon Musk’s dismantlement of this jewel of American diplomacy and
progress gained him and Trump nothing. The claimed misuse of money was
based on data falsified by Musk’s group itself. In the end, Musk fell
far short of his promise to cut the federal budget by more than one
third. And for that, he made rubble of USAID. Bill Gates pulled no
punches over Musk’s wreckage of USAID – in an interview this spring, he
said Musk was “killing the world’s poorest children”.
USAID’S Legacy Mirrors the American Experience
There
was no reason to destroy USAID. It was the window to America for
millions of people around the world. The cancellation of thousands of
projects, millions of medications, and enormous cuts in humanitarian
nutrition will wreak havoc on the most vulnerable people on earth,
especially on children and pregnant women.
The good USAID did in
the administration of the funds they have been given is immeasurable. As
the CEO of an international humanitarian NGO based in Washington, I had
responsibility for programs from the State Department and USAID that
taught freedom of the press, fostered international educational
exchanges with teachers and health experts, instructed community leaders
from former Soviet republics on democratic process, supported stronger
refugee programs in the Middle East, and boosted democratic systems in
eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America by developing
future leaders.
In the game of global influence, the reality of
seeing American and non-American colleagues working together on projects
that build respect and influence for America around the world has added
immeasurably to America’s strength, safety, and prosperity. In Ukraine,
we transformed the Soviet-style national library system into democratic
community centers to serve the local people. I especially recall a
project in Moldova which put windows in a school where kids for years
had shivered in windowless classrooms all winter wearing every stitch of
clothing they could.
We’ve shared experiences with people all
around the world. In journalism, we taught freedom of the press in
Mozambique, Liberia, Rwanda, and even to high school students in China.
In Rwanda, we worked to reconcile bitterly divided and traumatized
communities. To that point, a young development officer in a discussion
group one day told us that her mantra was Psalms 85:10: “Mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Our
goal, she offered, was to bring mercy to the reality of truth and commit
to what was right– strengthening communal peace. Americans were there
to help people who had been through trauma in country after country to
trust in themselves to build better futures.
Helping others is a
legacy of the American experience. Frontier life demanded cooperation
and mutual support to build educational and religious institutions,
effective governance and community security. In Democracy in America,
Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830’s extolled the charitable spirit of
American culture. Charity and helping others abroad to help themselves
is a direct result of the original fabric and pioneer spirit of America.
That
legacy and spirit has remained as a cornerstone of a benevolent
American presence globally. After WWI, the US played a major role in
humanitarian relief and rescue efforts to address widespread starvation,
displacement, and disease affecting millions of civilians, especially
in Europe and parts of the Middle East. The Americans supplied food and
medicine to millions of people in over 20 countries and specially
focused on children’s welfare. After WWII, the Marshall Plan pumped
billions of dollars into countries destroyed by war, stimulating the
global economy’s recovery and protecting the global economic and
security system that precipitated an unprecedented 70 years of expanding
global prosperity.
Thus, for well over a century, helping the
world’s countries has been at the core of the American identity. This is
who we are and who we always will be. Nothing has better represented
this legacy than USAID. When the current darkness has passed, I believe
the generosity of America will return to the world stage once again.
Our Adversaries are the Winners
The
disappearance of USAID is a strategic gift to China. In international
affairs there are no empty seats. China just sat down in the seat the US
vacated. Now, China will ramp up its decades long campaign to win over
the so-called “Third World” to be its ally in weakening the “Colonialist
West.” Russia’s penetration in Africa already promotes the alleged
failure of democracy. Moscow offers force and graft to replace
democracy.
Over the next generation or two, the population of
Africa will grow rapidly, and people will demand better lives – as they
deserve. Whether these countries can stabilize their societies and deal
with threats such as terrorism and warlords is not clear. We have a
fundamental interest in Africa’s economic, social, and political success
– not just in the resources of the continent. The same is equally and
obviously true for South America, where China is now the continent’s
major trading partner.
Do we realize that pulling back from
benevolent engagement and focusing on an aggressive economic strategy is
alienating people in precisely the places where we need to be welcomed?
Where will we be with Africa and Latin America in 50 years? Are we
looking at America First or by neglect and diplomatic blindness China
First?
There is no doubt that the presentation of America
seemingly at its worst will produce a reaction globally. Regional
combinations and choices that minimize the risk of doing business with
the US will be on more agendas. There is deep truth in the homily that
to have a friend you must be a friend. Controlling by imperial power and
bettering every opponent for one’s own benefit is not an enduring path
forward.
The New York Times on June 22 reported on the frantic
effort from many directions since February to save USAID programs. There
is no official public record of programs saved, in limbo, unfunded, or
under review despite the enormous interest. It’s as if the US government
acted on USAID like a bureaucratic Guadalupe River to destroy
everything in sight, and now people are looking at the resulting
destruction, debris, and heartache to see what pieces might have
survived. Disorganized government reactions, excuses for acting too fast
or too slow, a lack of information about how projects were linked, and
other steps too amateur and thoughtless to begin to justify decisions
show up throughout the process. With the State Department in the process
of announcing its own major cuts, the absence of competent decision
making and planning will only grow in scope and consequences.
President
Trump speaks nearly every day in one place or another about how much he
wants to end wars and the suffering of war. Why is it that deaths from
malnutrition, disease, famine, and social breakdown are not an equal
priority? They are to the countries involved. It is a shame that a
Secretary of State with such great experience, a former strong supporter
of American soft power, now is denying that people will die with the
disappearance of USAID.
Is it possible that at some point there
will be a recognition of the value of USAID to millions of people and to
America’s own national security and influence in the world? But for
now, people are already dying, and the memories of those deaths will
continue to pile up at the doorstep of our country.