It’s probably too soon to claim Elon Musk has babies’ blood on his hands for effectively shuttering America’s most consequential foreign aid agency. But trust me: He will.
On Musk’s orders, the work of the United States Agency for International Development has come to a screeching halt. Thousands of its administrators, workers and contractors have been thrown out of work, its programs suspended for who-knows-how-long and its website no longer functioning.
“We’re shutting it down,” Musk said Monday. “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”
My guess is that Musk, the unelected, unappointed billionaire bureaucrat in charge of slashing federal spending, and his boss, President Trump, are betting that most Americans won’t care about stuff that goes on overseas. Voters were in an isolationist mood when they gave Trump a second term. And most of us have only a glancing knowledge of USAID, which delivers humanitarian aid to developing nations beleaguered by conflict, disease and natural disaster across the globe. With a budget of around $40 billion, USAID is also the world’s largest provider of food assistance — which, to put in terms even Musk might grok, means it saves the lives of malnourished babies.
But — surprise — Americans do care. On Wednesday, pro-USAID demonstrations took place at state capitols around the country. In Washington, D.C., where USAID is headquartered and many of its workers and contractors live, thousands turned out to protest Musk’s abrupt, potentially illegal move.
Detractors may wonder what the agency does, but a better question is what doesn’t it do?
Founded during the Kennedy administration to counter Soviet influence, USAID has helped Ukraine in its fight against Russia, worked to ensure that elections are free and fair and, collaborating with partners in 100 countries around the world, alleviated poverty, hunger, illness and desperation. It funds independent foreign media and civil society activists, advancing global freedom and security. And nearly all of that has abruptly stopped.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration’s stop-work order to all USAID-funded organizations leaves thousands of people “with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies with no access to monitoring or care.”
Like any massive agency, USAID suffers from a degree of waste, fraud and abuse. The agency’s inspector general also recently laid out his concerns about a frustrating lack of United Nations cooperation with USAID and recommended changes.
But despite problems that should be addressed, USAID is the very embodiment of American soft power. It’s quite simply the most persuasive peaceful tool we have to improve people’s lives, spread democratic ideals and counter China’s growing influence in Africa and South America.
Which is why, as you can imagine, autocrats around the world are thrilled to see it dismantled.
“Wrapped into the billions the U.S. spends annually on foreign aid — more than any other nation — are hundreds of grants for grassroots groups dedicated to fighting for democracy in authoritarian countries around the world,” the Associated Press reported. Favorable reactions to the agency’s shuttering came from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Russia, the AP noted: “Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on X that he hopes the ‘notorious Deep State doesn’t swallow’ Musk for pulling the plug on the agency.”
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for the second Trump administration, devotes a whole chapter to USAID, accusing the Biden administration of allowing the agency to promote “a radical ideology” and a “divisive political and cultural agenda that promotes abortion, climate extremism, gender radicalism, and interventions against perceived systematic racism.” And yet despite such absurd hyperbole, Project 2025 admits that the agency is crucial “to counter Communist China’s strategy of world domination.”
Musk called USAID an “evil” “criminal organization.” Trump chimed in that it’s run by “a bunch of radical lunatics.”
That is crazy. But it’s not surprising, because — with apologies to “Stranger Things” — we’re all living in the Upside Down right now.
“The idea that this is a criminal enterprise? Please,” said Peter Kerndt, a public health physician who recently spent five years in Mozambique working for a USAID contractor on a project to curb the spread of tuberculosis. His work involved tracing, identifying and treating those infected with the deadly disease. On Jan. 28, he was abruptly fired.
“It’s like a punch to the gut,” said Kerndt, who worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for 29 years before leaving for USAID. “My God, Musk doesn’t know the work that is being done. I think the richest man in the world has an agenda.”
Ya think?
Sen. Chris Murphy advanced a plausible theory Tuesday night in a video posted to Instagram. Musk, whose business relies on government contracts, is simply out to “pad his pockets,” the Connecticut Democrat said. He noted that Musk makes half his Teslas in China, which is also his biggest foreign market.
“He’s in a row right now with China because China is not allowing him to market his self-driving vehicle, and they are trying to give advantage to their domestic self-driving product,” Murphy said. “How do you get in quick favor with the Chinese government? You dismantle the agency that is the biggest thorn in the side of China.”
The USAID inspector general was also investigating how Musk’s SpaceX Starlink satellite terminals, purchased with agency funds, were used in Ukraine’s war with Russia, though details are sparse. Biographer Walter Isaacson wrote that Musk once cut off the Ukrainian military’s access to Starlink to thwart a submarine drone attack against Russia. That is simply too much power for one individual to wield.
MAGA Republicans can yelp all they want about “woke” agendas being exported by USAID, but the bottom line is the agency does incredibly important, lifesaving work.
I asked Dr. Kerndt why Americans should care about the work he does to prevent and cure tuberculosis, which is often fatal if untreated and for which there is no vaccine.
“Tuberculosis affects young, healthy people,” he told me. “It’s a catastrophic cost to those individuals, to the breadwinners, to the families. It sinks them further into poverty. It’s something we can prevent for pennies on the dollar. And it’s a source of immeasurable respect for the U.S.”
Throwing that good work away to appease a childish billionaire will leave a lasting moral stain on this country.
Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social. Threads: @rabcarian
