USAID Officially Closes, Receiving Bush and Obama’s Criticism
Former Presidents Obama and Bush have strongly criticized the official closure of the US Agency for International Development.
After years of deliberate downsizing under President Donald Trump, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially closed. On Tuesday, the State Department absorbed USAID.
Long regarded as the backbone of US foreign aid, the agency was gradually dissolved as a result of what the Trump administration called wasteful spending.
By March, more than 80 percent of USAID’s programs had already been discontinued, and the agency’s separate existence had come to an end when the remaining activities were merged into the State Department.
Since its founding in 1961, USAID has expanded to become the largest foreign aid organization in the world, with around 10,000 employees worldwide, two-thirds of whom are stationed abroad. However, the dismantling of its operations has drawn considerable censure from prominent individuals, such as former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as international humanitarian organizations.
There will likely be severe humanitarian repercussions from the decision. By 2030, the aid cuts could lead to almost 14 million more fatalities, with children making up almost a third of those at risk, according to an analysis published in The Lancet medical magazine. The estimates were deemed “staggering” by the researchers. However, a State Department source rejected the results, saying AFP that the US would continue to provide help more “efficiently” and that the study was founded on “incorrect assumptions.”
When Trump appointed billionaire and former adviser Elon Musk to simplify the government workforce early in his second term, the cutbacks started. Programs that were cut included aid for clearing landmines, containing Ebola in Africa, and giving wounded soldiers in Ukraine artificial limbs.
A notice saying all direct-hire employees globally were placed on administrative leave as of February 23 was still visible on USAID’s website on Wednesday. The estimated 1,000 remaining initiatives will be handled by his department, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is currently in charge of the remaining aid programs. “Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests,” Rubio said in a Substack post, marking the official end of this age of government-sanctioned inefficiency.
Trump has emphasized time and time again that US foreign policy spending must be in line with his “America First” policy.
Both Republican and Democratic leaders sharply criticized the closure. Obama and Bush thanked hundreds of USAID personnel for their contributions and denounced the shutdown in a video chat with U2 vocalist Bono.
During his administration, Bush concentrated on eliminating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Does the fact that 25 million individuals who would have died are still alive serve the interests of our country? In a recorded message, he said to employees, “I believe it is, and you do too.”
Obama praised USAID’s work as “some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world” and referred to the closure as a “tragedy” and “a travesty.”
“When you were the best of us, they called you crooks,” continued Bono, who is well-known for his humanitarian activism.
The shutdown of USAID has caused a reverberation throughout the international aid industry. Other nations, such as the UK, France, and Germany, likewise reduced their foreign aid expenditures after the US did. The present budget deficit was referred to as “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector” by the UN last month.
