The United States now has one arm tied behind its back. In a few weeks, the second Trump presidency has taken away one of the key instruments of American power: U.S. soft power.
Elon Musk has bragged about shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, defamed the civil servants who work there, and claimed that foreign aid and development assistance is a waste of taxpayer dollars. The ripple effects will be felt around the world and in communities across America.
I’m a former U.S. official at USAID and the Department of Defense, and seeing my colleagues at the world’s leading humanitarian and development agency be vilified by the Trump administration has been disheartening. It’s a betrayal of America’s public servants and a far departure from one of the pillars of U.S. foreign policy, supported by Democrats, Republicans and independents for decades. Above all, America’s ability to safeguard its national security has been weakened.
As leading Chicago-area advocates warn, closing USAID makes it extremely difficult to coordinate on solving the root causes of mass migration and ensure humanitarian needs are addressed. Chicago is home to communities with ties around the world, including Ukrainian, Syrian, Venezuelan, and Sudanese Americans.
These communities know best just how critical support from the American people helps millions survive violent conflicts, prevents even larger conflicts and rebuilds lives. International development work — led by the U.S. — keeps the world stable, providing economic and political benefits to all Americans. It’s also the right thing to do.
If I remember my days at the University of Illinois well, most freshmen political science majors are quizzed by a professor in one of their introductory courses on how much of the U.S. budget is spent on foreign aid. The answer is, to the surprise of many, less than one cent on the dollar.
Cuts hurt farmers, rural areas, veterans
Meanwhile, the Trump cuts to billions of dollars in U.S. food assistance programs threaten agricultural supply chains and economic stability in rural communities across the Midwest. For example, a University of Illinois-led soybean program, which has created considerable markets for U.S. farmers, has been shuttered. But Trump’s team wants to convince Americans that they’re getting a bad deal because taxpayer dollars are going abroad (and not because the corrupt aren’t paying taxes).
Trump’s shuttering of USAID affects programs critical to our national security. This includes aid provided to American allies; to virus containment efforts and bipartisan-backed HIV/AIDS interventions in Africa; to disrupting the fentanyl industry; and to the operation of prisons guarding ISIS militants. The cuts are more than a pause to review the efficiency and financial integrity of U.S. aid. Many of these programs will struggle to rebound, as thousands of staff with decades of knowledge and expertise are laid off. Many of these USAID staff are military veterans who wanted to continue the mission through supporting American soft power.
Those in opposition to Trump and Musk’s actions need to look in the mirror and ask themselves why the indispensable work being done by diplomats and aid workers around the world barely resonates beyond Washington, D.C. Many are victims of disinformation, which Musk has amplified on X. It’s possible that those most aware of the impact of U.S. foreign policy, such as Latino and Middle Eastern American communities who understand the need to address the root causes of war and migration, and young voters whose appreciation of the world and America’s place in it is made possible by social media, have felt taken for granted.
Millennials and Gen Z have seen U.S. foreign policy failures under both parties in the post-9/11 era, from the invasion of Iraq to the hastened withdrawal from Afghanistan. Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Benjamin Netanyahu government in Israel turned Gaza into what a UNICEF official called a “graveyard for children.”
More than just a policy that was opposed by many in the Biden-Harris administration and Democratic party, as well as some of America’s allies, above all Gaza demonstrated that U.S. credibility was increasingly brittle.
But in hollowing out USAID, whose work often cleaned up the messes made by the White House or Congress, Trump may shatter U.S. credibility altogether. That is by magnitudes worse, as billions of people, and our national security, depend on U.S. leadership.
Our security and standing depend on us not becoming cynical. President John F. Kennedy, who established USAID and the Peace Corps, inspired young people to ask what they can do for their country. Trump may wish that a generation of people will be discouraged from public service. To America’s enemies, to China and Russia, we have scored on our own basket. To reclaim U.S. leadership after the damage of this era, we will need to rewrite the playbook.
Adham Sahloul was a Special Advisor in the Biden-Harris administration and served at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense.
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