Vital agency at risk amid chaos, court fights, fear, and uncertainty
Americans are schizophrenic about foreign aid. A majority think it is a fine idea that America helps poorer countries but, as polling from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs has shown through the years, they also think the U.S. government should spend its money at home.
There is also a disturbingly high number of Americans who believe that a large percentage of the federal budget is spent on such aid, when the actual figure is less than 1%.
In the last several days, the Trump administration has tried to freeze all foreign aid, causing chaos around the world. It has put two senior security officials at USAID on administrative leave when they blocked minions of Elon Musk from accessing classified databases at the agency.
A young engineer who works for Musk apparently sent an email to USAID employees ordering them to stay home this past Monday. Websites have gone dark. Email accounts blocked. Musk exulted on X that they were throwing USAID into the “wood chipper” because USAID was a “criminal organization,” and it was time for the agency “to die.” President Trump called USAID leaders and employees “radical lunatics.”
Then new Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would be taking over the role of USAID administrator temporarily (which appears to be illegal). Rubio characterized the efforts of USAID employees to keep Musk’s staff out of classified areas for which they might not have had clearances as “the kind of insubordination that makes it impossible to conduct a mature and serious review.”
Criminal organization? Time to die? Wood chipper? Radical lunatics? Serious? Mature?
Rubio is appointing Pete Marocco, who was driven out of USAID for his slash-and-burn style in the first Trump administration, to oversee a review of the agency.
USAID was created by an act of Congress in 1961. Only an act of Congress can fundamentally change the structure of the agency. Rubio said he would bring USAID closer into State, something Congress has long resisted.
Development professionals will tell you that development programs work best when the people on the ground have a good deal of autonomy to customize programs for local conditions and build permanent infrastructure with local partners along the way. Centralization in Washington flies in the face of that and leads to ineffectiveness and waste.
In 2008, 50 retired flag and general officers asked Congress to increase funding for diplomacy and development aid. They said: “We know that the ‘enemies’ in the world today are actually conditions — poverty, infectious disease, political turmoil and corruption, environmental and energy challenges.” That is what USAID tries to combat in 130 countries.
Sure, drive more countries into the arms of China. That’s a recipe for a more dangerous world.
Columnist Ezra Klein made an astute observation this weekend when he wrote that President Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern as a president. He is a lame duck and has the narrowest of margins in both houses of Congress. Passing legislation will take great skill.
In the first Trump administration there was a process to “transform” USAID that began with an executive order but evolved into a process and USAID Administrator Mark Green said he wanted to work closely with Congress in making reforms. In the end — the pandemic did not help — there was limited progress.
This time — Trump 2.0 — Elon Musk has become an extra-governmental wild card who raises a hundred questions about the source of his authority and conflicts of interest, not to mention his true motives. Thus, we are left with chaos, court fights, fear, and uncertainty. A vital agency and thousands of development professionals hold their breath.
• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His new book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.