The ongoing saga of USAID is the damnedest story:
“In many cases USAID is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy with that country or with that region,” [Marco] Rubio told reporters in El Salvador’s capital. “That cannot continue.”
....America’s new chief diplomat also accused USAID leaders of insubordination, accusing agency leaders of refusing to answer basic questions posed by lawmakers during his time in the Senate. He also refuted the notion, which he said agency officials espoused to legislators, that USAID is an apolitical agency.
“American foreign policy isn’t apolitical,” Rubio said. “American foreign policy is … to further the interest of the United States. If someone wants to spend apolitical dollars, they should spend private dollars.”
What exactly is the problem with USAID? I mean, if you just hate foreign aid, then fine. But all you have to do is slash their budget, not pretend it's some communist outpost across the street from the FBI.
As for insubordination, senators always think agency heads are dodging their questions. But Rubio mostly supported USAID during his years in the Senate. He even co-sponsored a bill to diversify its funding.
And as if that's not head spinning enough, Rubio is now accusing USAID of not being political enough? What's going on here? Are they a bunch of "radical lunatics" (Trump)? "Radical left Marxists" (Musk)? Or a bunch of dweebish technocrats (Rubio)?
I feel like someone must know the understory here. What's really going on?
Trump needs as much distraction as possible from what he is doing in the FBI and DOJ, and that is part of it (same about tariffs).
This implies they want to hide what they are doing in the FBI and DOJ. Zero evidence of that. It is simply everything, everywhere, all at once and all out in the open.
But it works for them. At least on this blog, people just don't notice what happens in the FBI.
I suspect 99% of us know what's going on with the FBI. Kevin's particular posting schedule is beyond our control.
The fact that you know the FBI issues, even if it is true, doesn't change the fact that on this blog they are rarely mentioned, and that the point I made.
That means that readers of this blog will get the impression that it is not an important issue when considering Trump actions. If similar blogs behave similarly, that is a problem.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of the little minds…
You had your answer with your previous post about Musk following some Nutbar on the internet. Musk got Trump to buy this BS and Rubio is obeying the orders of his god emperor. It is as simple as that. Don't waste your time looking for deeper answers.
Yep, this.
Republicans have been bashing USAID and foreign aid in general for as long as I've been alive. There's nothing confusing here. It's one of their favorite scapegoats/red herrings for "government waste."
And less than 1% of the US federal budget goes towards foreign aid. What do they want, 0%? So much for soft power and altruism.
Also, many countries spend more per capita on foreign aid than the US. It's not like we've gone bonkers and we’re blindly overgenerous.
It's not even a "soft power" issue, which admittedly can now be twisted into some kind of girly value by the MAGAts. But the most compelling argument is that wherever the US doesn't want to help people, China will be ready to jump in and fill that need. How is this not painfully obvious to a "normie" like Rubio.
The most likely answer is that "normie" has come to mean "thrall."
How is not about "soft power"?
+1
Its like most every Republican has decided to disregard their common sense, if they have any, and defer to a fucking idiot with a superiority complex. This is the Republican brain on Trump.
Yes, they want 0%. They've been screaming about foreign aid being "wasteful" and "fraudulent" and "abusive" for decades. How did so many people miss this? It's been a frequent complaint of Republicans for at least 30 years.
They also just don't understand the concept of foreign aid and building allies with goodwill rather than bullying and chestbeating.
Not quite 0%. Most of them still want funding for Israel.
Yeah, Christians are dying to be raptured and the sooner Israel fulfills its biblical destiny the sooner they can all ship off to paradise. To which I say good riddance!
Never understood the fundie Christian attitude about working to bring about the Rapture/Apocalypse/whatever. If God has ordained that all this will happen anyhow, why do we need to go to any lengths to help it along?
God asked us to, silly. 😉
While true, it's not really in the same budget bucket. Aid to Israel isn't the same as USAID (the arms deals, etc., are separate appropriations).
61% of USAID funding is going to Ukraine. Answers all the questions about why it needs to be shut down.
Also USAID programs empowered the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. It was key in getting the Afrikaans to step down and give way to Mandela.
Agree, I think this is a big part of it for Elmo, whose family left around that time. Others have had it in for USAID because of its pro-democracy and pro-civil-society support in Eastern Europe in the 90s-- Putin and other authoritarians in the region, especially in Poland and Hungary. Just as they've had it in all along for Soros, who sponsored a lot of moves along similar lines then (including the Central European University that Orban kicked out of Hungary early on).
It wouldn't be at all out of character for convicted felon trump to go after things autocrats hate, because iirc, during the beta test last term he went hammer and tongs after Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which worked in the same direction at the time.
Farther down this thread my earlier quick take went in a different direction. But I've seen some things since then that lead strongly this way.
It's their enemy of the week. Previously, it could have been Hatian immigrants, or trans people, or sign language interpreters, or Bud Light, or the FBI, or Target. Today it's USAID. What could it be tomorrow? Nobody knows. But there must be someone or something to hate at all times. Without it, the whole thing falls apart.
Yep, it's like Two-Minute Hate come to life.
No. this one seems personally. Not just some shitpost Catturd put out there that Musk saw.
You actually think there's a deeper story/reason for what's going on, other than the nexus of Musk wanting to eliminate chunks of the federal gov't that he deems useless and the convicted felon Trump's zero-sum game brain? Why?
"convicted felon Trump"
Thank you for this. Everyone should always refer to him this way. Not President Trump. Convicted felon Trump.
Soft power doesn't seem to mean much to, or to be fully understood by, Trump. He likes to go big, to create big media spectacles he's at the center of, so stuff like this he just doesn't care about, and a few people probably whispered in his ear it's infected by Marxism (not true), so a convenient target too (low hanging fruit).
No election or public attention is likely going to swing on this, aside from ongoing patterns of abuse and executive fiat and incompetence, but as far as soft power goes, could indirectly result in ceding ground to China's Belt and Road, and potentially great harm to our interests and the free world more generally.
Trump and team also seem pretty desperate to come up with enough offsets to extend the 2017 tax cuts without wrecking everything.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/02/03/the-united-states-is-suddenly-in-big-trouble/
The story is that King Donald has said he hates USAID and wants it gone, and all the cretins who want to stay in his favor have to publicly support it - including Rubio, who probably knows better and has to clean up the damage done from this.
It's fascism. Consistency has no role to play. On the contrary, contradiction serves their purposes of spreading confusion over their actions.
+1
They're breaking stuff now so they can wring concessions from the opposition once they're out of power and Democrats are cleaning up the mess they left behind. Restore the USAID you say? But of course. So long as you give us a tax cut.
Trump and Musk do not care about what deals the GOP can get out of the next Dem president. Neither understand or care about soft power so see it as waste and low hanging fruit to attack while other Republicans ideologically dislike it enough either lot really care about it or want it destroyed. The Republocan base actively hate giving aid to countries which also doesn’t help.
No, they don't. They're just the (suggestible) tools.
Only the Democrats govern with losing the next election as part of their plan.
That's the one thing I respect the Democrats for. They do what they think is right, even if it means losing power. The Republicans only do what they think will keep them in power.
There is none. Liars lie.
I think Robert Reich has this nailed:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps
USAID has a propaganda arm. Trump wants it completely under his control.
It's pretty easy, Trump doesn't understand enlightened self-interest.
Musk hates USAID because they had a hand in ending apartheid.
Trump hates USAID because Musk told him to. (You can hear the echoes of Musk whispering in his ear when he gripes about land reform in South Africa.)
Rubio hates USAID because Trump told him to.
“Musk hates USAID because they had a hand in ending apartheid.”
I read elsewhere that this is why the Lutheran hatred too. Looks to me like we are going to be experiencing white supremacy all the time.
Close, agree with you about apartheid being done in by USAID but Trump hates USAID because Putin hates it. Putin kicked USAID out of Russian awhile ago because it was a means of countering all his disinfo.
Viktor Orbán hates USAID for trying to promote democracy in Hungary. I suspect he asked Trump to destroy the agency when he attended Trump's inauguration.
"Congress appropriated money for this agency and it’s the executive’s job to carry out that order. I mean, when Congress passes a spending bill – an appropriations bill becomes law – that’s not a suggestion. They’re not giving advice to the president. It’s a command. They’re telling him how to spend the money.
What’s happening right now in the federal government is absolutely beyond anything I’ve ever seen. We’re talking about a purge at the FBI, shuttering USAID, pardoning J6 criminals....Congress has a role to play here. They are not a bystander in this."
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/former-gop-congressman-slams-egregious-abuse-by-trump-and-musk-beyond-anything-ive-ever-seen/
They shouldn't be, but they are. They have given up their responsibility as a check on the executive in fealty to Trump. I have no idea why. I do hope they come to their senses sooner rather than later. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen though.
They think themselves Predators or Hirogen and seek trophies…
It's just flailing about with a helpless victim. Any rationale in a storm.
My read, this is really about tax cuts.
- According to polling, foreign aid is not that popular
- Calling a US agency 'Radical left Marxists' makes it less popular
- GOP wants to cut taxes: they need revenue offsets, such as a portion of the USAID budget
Ergo...
He is mad that USAID fought apartheid.
https://adst.org/2021/06/american-peoples-foreign-policy-usaids-role-in-apartheid-south-africa/
Not only that, but your linked reference mentions “labor union training program, and human rights and legal assistance fund” — yep, ‘Radical left Marxists’ alright!!!
/s
The operative question, I'm guessing, is what fringe nutball Christian supremacist, white supremacist, or anti-abortion group(s) has been on an anti-USAID crusade for several years now? Or, which nutball authoritarian he pays attention to has been doing this?
That's often enough how convicted felon trump gloms onto his obscure targets. I agree that he's probably using this as a distraction from the other illegal and unconstitutional stuff he and his Rijksminister have been up to. But particular distractionary brain worms tend to get planted by people with access to his holy personage, and it's probably random which ones can burrow in.
Musk is a no-longer-closeted Nazi. USAid frequently supports foreign parties that oppose radical right/reactionary movements. QED.
Oh, also too: Musk has fried his brain with ketamine.
Yes, I think it's safe to say that Donnie has been talking with Putin.
I suspect Putin wants the US to go through a similar chaos that he experienced when the USSR dissolved.
"[F]oreign assistance, though charitable, isn’t charity. It’s a strategic investment that safeguards America’s most important interests while reflecting its highest values. It protects the United States from threats abroad before they reach America’s shores, from diseases to fentanyl to terrorism. It helps to combat human trafficking, supports democratic elections, and stems the flow of migration, attacking the root causes that force people to flee. It helps secure critical supply chains and builds markets for U.S. exports while creating jobs at home. And in an era of strategic competition, foreign aid wins influence and allies."
https://www.justsecurity.org/106876/us-foreign-aid-stop-work-order/
Phatty just thinks winning friends and influencing people is done at tip of a tariff or threat of seizure
Is it just me, or is Kevin's search for reason and/or logic in a realm where clearly neither exists becoming a little... Quixotic?
Not just you.
What exactly is the problem with USAID?
They hate all elements of the federal government, Kevin. Please tell us a component they like. I've got four years.
The've been saying they're going to destroy the deep state for years now. This. Is. What. That. Looks. Like.
A "deep state" illusion that got attached to every obstacle tossed in their way. I suspect it is likely the FBI thingy is being used to discredit any and all proof of donnie's involvement in J6. After all, the next group to try a coupe will simply point to proof of donnie's involvement. Eliminate the proof and donnie rules, forever. As he stated he would.
As has been noted here and elsewhere, there was indeed a time when USAID *was* viewed as a political tool of the US, particularly during the Cold War (which, to be fair, it totally was). The reason it was able to operate abroad in the way it did is that it was at least colorably apolitical. Particularly in warzones, it had to be seen as a neutral player in order for the workers to be safe and to get food to people.
MAGA hates it because it does stuff internationally that's not bombing or corruption. Oh, and it also helps poor brown people generally, which definitely can't stand.
The Republican party is dusting off the Anti-Federalist concept of government. They just hate all of it.
Stop looking for reasons.
Do you think they are really incensed by DEI? Of course not. Trump doesn't care about anything that doesn't affect him and DEI doesn't. But he did recognize a powerful idea he could sell to his racist base.
Same here. USAID is in the grand scheme of things nothing. But it is something he can easily sell to his racist base who are convinced we are giving half our money to foreign aid.
That's really as deep as you need to go.