LOS ANGELES.–Rocking the boat in Washington’s bloated bureaucracy doesn’t come without bureaucrats kicking-and-screaming, with 78-year-old President Donald Trump and his 53-year-old self-appointed government efficiency expert billionaire Elon Musk. Trump tasked job with the unenviable job of cutting waste, fraud and mismanagement, something that raises the hackles of any bureaucrat on the payroll, true believer that looks the other way when it comes to the big picture of reducing government waste. If you listen to Samantha Powers, former USAID administrator [2021to 2025], you’d think everything done by the agency is just wonderful, supporting U.S. humanitarian values around the world. With a budget of $70 billion, USAID, Powers couldn’t tell you where the money goes or whether many of the non-governmental agencies used the U.S. for the purposes intended.
USAID was created by executive order in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy for the purpose of supporting the 1961 Peace Corps and the 1946 Fulbright Act, both designed to deal with the Cold War of Russia, in particular at the time, competing with the U.S. for winning the hearts-and-minds of third world or developing countries attracted to communism in preference to democracy. Despite advocacy by Powers claiming how many countries and groups around the world would be hurt by Trump pulling the plug on USAID, she mentions nothing about the waste, fraud and mismanagement that hobbled the USAID mission, putting cash sometimes into the hands of terrorist groups or shady nonprofits that direct funds toward violence and revolution not their intended purpose of health care, education or economic development. So, Musk finds himself attacked on all sides.
Powers has a bizarre take on Trump’s attempt to get control of the uncontrolled, bloated and irresponsible federal budget that runs currently a $2 trillion federal budget deficit, not to mention the over $36 trillion national debt. Powers and other government bureaucrats don’t think of the big picture involving the current unsustainable current federal budget. Powers said that dismantling USAID threatens to put China, as a major U.S. adversary, into the driver’s seat with its Belt and Road initiative, essential lending capital in the third world to spread Chinese style communism around the planet. When JFK signed his executive order for USAID, it was in the context of confronting Soviet communism that was spreading around the globe, especially in the third world. With the Cold War now morphed into a hot war with the Kremlin, USAID has not stopped the prospects of World War III.
Whatever waste, fraud and mismanagement Musk finds in USAID, Trump should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, retaining programs that further the mission of providing aid for vital purposes, like economic development, education, health care, disease prevention and democracy development. Now that Trump puts USAID in the spotlight, the liberal apologists that think the more waste, fraud and mismanagement is necessary to get whatever modicum of benefits out in the real world. JFK, operating in a world of global communist domination, had to come up with a practical way to confront a growing global threat. Now Powers says that dismantling USAID would strengthen Beijing, the same mentality in the Biden administration that led to the current war with the Kremlin. Now USAID is sold by Powers as a way to stay ahead of Communist China.
Trump’s American First program scrutinizes the role of LGBTQ plus issues or radical civil rights that don’t apply to aid supplied to nonprofits or NGOs in the third world. So, instead of dismantling USAID, maybe Trump and Musk can find what they find objectionable and raise it in an audit to stop further funding. Currently USAID has a budget of $72 billion with a staff of 10,000 people. Any audit of USAID would be helpful in determining which programs should be on the chopping block. “In support of America’s foreign policy, the [USAID] leads the U.S. government’s international development and disaster assistance through partnerships and investments that save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic and help people emerge from humanitarian crises and progress,” said the USAID website. Seems like USAID has deviated from its core mission.
Trump’s attempts to save the U.S. government from the bankruptcy catches more flack from Democrats and other USAID apologists in and out of the U.S. government. Everyone wants their cash from the U.S. government but Trump wants to look save the government wasted cash so it can be used for projects that benefits poverty, homelessness and health care in the United States. When it comes to USAID, the U.S. doesn’t need to pit itself against China, like former USAID Director Samantha Powers says, getting the U.S. into a war in Asia. What good is USAID if the government’s policy is war with Russia and China? JFK would roll in his grave to see how Biden wrecked decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with the Russian Federation. So when Powers talks about Trump strengthening China, it’s the same feeble excuse that Biden gave to fund proxy war with the Kremlin.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
