4d ago

Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID

www.nbcnews.com Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID

Musk announced the planned closure of the foreign assistance agency early Monday on social media.

Summary

Elon Musk announced that he and Trump are shutting down USAID, bypassing Congress’s authority over federal spending.

Musk claimed Trump fully supports the move, though Trump has only criticized USAID without explicitly confirming its closure.

The White House has not commented. The administration has already placed USAID officials on leave and reviewed its funding.

Critics argue the move violates federal law, setting up a potential legal battle.

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Dumb question: why are they targeting USAID?
- I assume:
  “wasted” money not spent to directly benefit us citizens
  there always seems to be racism at the core
  they think they can get away with it - who will speak for the suffering millions in developing countries
  Trump doesnt understand concepts like influence, soft power, long term thinking, morality
  This is “free money” where they can claim their “$2T” in savings
  
  Perfectly summarized. It’s a damn shame. People well die, and the US cedes influence and leaves a power vacuum China is happy to fill.
  
  To make it worse, we spend almost nothing on it. They are saving pennies:
  The U.S. is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid by far. It spends less than 1 percent of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries.
  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/usaid-website-goes-dark-amid-trump-administrations-freeze-on-foreign-aid-worldwide
  
  PBS is next on the chopping block. Problem solved. /s
  
  The funny thing is most foreign aid projects are implemented by American contracting companies. A very large percentage of the money stays in the US and employs Americans. Look up DAI, Chemonics, Abt Associates, Creative Associates, TetraTech, etc. Most of these companies will go bankrupt because of these actions. In the case of Chemonics, they run a project to distribute HIV and malaria medication to millions around the world. These people will lose their medication. They also run a program to detect famine in Africa, South America, and parts of Asia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_Early_Warning_Systems_Network
- Elon Musk pushes the lie that truly homeless people don't exist. That essentially it's a choice and we should feel no empathy for them. Add to that his well-documented history of racism and weird eugenicist beliefs about IQ and superior genes that need to survive, you start to get the picture for why he thinks taking food and medicine away from the most deprived people on the planet is a priority for the US government.

73 comments