The Trump and Musk war against the agency should oppose the principled. But we cannot help but notice that USAID for decades has been a devastating hand of American imperialism.
Senator Chris Wang Hollen (D-MD) speaks at a rally outside the US Capitol in support of USAID in Washington, Columbia County, February 5, 2025.
(Nathan Posner / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Earlier this month, the Democrats in Congress conducted one of Trump’s new major protests. Famous Democratic Legislators missing Outside the closed headquarters cut Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. Politicians went against the efforts of Moscow to remove almost all the agency’s staff and denied the federal government to absorb the only private citizen.
But when they rushed to the USAID defense, the Democrats also unintentions emphasized the uncomfortable truth about the agency: that for decades it was an important hand of American imperialism, which often served as a tool for changing the regime, interference of elections and destabilization from the countries of the world.
For example, Senator -Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, boasted that USAID “fights terrorist groups around the world”, pursues China around the world to make sure it does not “monopolize contracts for important minerals and port infrastructure” and “supports the fighters of freedom” wherever they are (and however US USA defines the term). Senator Maryland Chris van Halllen meanwhile called Efforts to stop USAID “Absolute gift to our opponents, Russia, China, Iran and others.”
Samantha Pauer, former USAID director, will also be exposed to the US armed with humanitarian aid, masking its strategic interests of altruism. In recent New York Times n-an EDThe authorities acknowledged that the agency “created huge political capital stores” in countries where it works and uses its leverage to strengthen US financial interests, such as assistance to the American company “Going to the New Market”. Senator New Jersey Andy Kim, Democrat, who once worked on USAID, was even more stupid. “USAID is not a charity,” he wrote in pillar On X. “This is a foreign policy tool with a two -party origin, which is crucial in this dangerous global setting. Pulling it means that squeezing our ability to compete and keep America safe.”
To be clear, Musk’s attempt to destroy the agency does not cause the celebration. Attack Musk and Trump on USAID and Federal Bureaucracy Big illegal And undemocratic. Rescue programs around the world have been thrown in chaosIncluding health care services and HIV and almost half a billion dollars, which is now risking ruin. The Trump administration also plans to absorb the agency into the State Department, which would be much worse. (These steps are already there faced with a number of legal problems.)
Musk tried to justify repression from several different sides, push conspiracies, misleading claims and straightforward falsehood. He called usaid “a nest viper radical Marxists who hate America” and “criminal organization”. He lied about the salary of power in the agency and falsely claimed that USAID funds Politics. At one point, Musk even raised a post, which calls the agency “the most giant global territor organization in history”, which refers to a well -documented USAID role as a vehicle to change the regime and political intervention.
But this is not a fundamental anti -imperialist reckoning. In 2020 Musk declared In a remote tweet: “We’ll turn over someone who wants to deal with it,” referring to the United States coup Against Eva Morales in Bolivia is a country rich in lithium and other minerals that are necessary for the production of Musk electric vehicles.
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But still, there is no reason blindly defend USAID.
It is no secret that the agency is an expansion of America’s aggressive foreign policy. It was first created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to resist the influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In decades ever since USAID play a a key role In efforts intended for breaking out socialist movements, changes in the regime and preservation of US corporate interests around the world. It was also weird ineffective with actual development. Most USAID costs go strictly to US companies and sources, not local organizations that actively undermine development in these countries and retain vulnerable to the United States. The US government also is known to use agencies to finance and disguise its propaganda outlets abroad. For example, in 2010, USAID reportedly headed the project to secretly create “Cuban Twitter” aimed at moving the excitement to cause a change of regime.
US often condemn groups such as huts having accused The United States and Israel use humanitarian aid as a cover of espionage, striking assistance or have blocked humanitarian access. But how can Washington claim a moral position when their own officials admit that its assistance programs are strategic tools rather than purely humanitarian? If American assistance is often a Trojan horse for wider geopolitical ambitions, then for any foreign government reasonably refers to US -related assistance programs. At the moment when the United States openly links assistance to the reinforcement of minerals, political manipulations and its global force, which helps to stop being friendly in any significant sense.
The Carnegie Foundation Recently for International Peace, which is based on DC, recently published A chunk About the “soullessness” of the shock of the Trump administration of US foreign aid. However, creating their business in defense USAID, they confirm that US foreign policy critics have long claimed.
“The idea that foreign aid in the United States was a festival of a generous charity, disabled from the US interests, is ridiculous,” wrote Thomas Corrot, Democracy Director, Conflicts and Carnegie Management. “Just look at the list U.S.’s largest recipients“It is no coincidence that they are almost all security partners or countries that cause the security problem.”
He is right. And although it is important for people to oppose the illegal attack by Musk and Trump on the government, it is equally important not to pretend that these institutions are lightens. We need to go beyond these simplified binary files and push the model that rejects Trump’s fascism as well as the type of imperialism that has so long determined USAID.
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