The human cost of Musk’s war against USAID
Sadism as a governing policy
It’s difficult at this point to estimate the longterm damage from Elon Musk’s illegal assault on federal agencies, specifically the United States Agency for International Development. The willful surrender of U.S. soft power will in the long term erode the nation’s credibility on the world stage and only increase threats to national security. However, the immediate human impact has been horrific.
The Trump/Musk administration reportedly plans to retain just 294 USAID staffers out of more than 10,000 global employees. It’s almost unfathomable that a president would enter office and immediately set out to kill American jobs.
Kristina Drye, who was one of the immediate USAID casualties, told 60 Minutes, “Twelve days ago, people knew where their next paycheck was coming from. They knew how they were going to pay for their kids’ daycare, their medical bills. And then, all gone overnight.” (Watch below.)
Republicans have dismissed Drye as feeling “entitled” to a job for life. Thousands of people are fired in the private sector every day, they claim. Of course, a new administration rarely makes people losing their jobs a major first 100 days initiative.
Musk insists that his goons are just eliminating “waste,” and the federal workers have been fired for cause. This is a lie. You don’t slash agencies by 98 percent and expect them to continue. Musk has boasted that he’s “feeding USAID into the wood chipper. His callous remarks don’t suggest he’s interested in a thorough, objective review of USAID spending. Instead, he’s gleefully razing the organization to the ground, with zero regard for the human lives affected.
Hillary Clinton took a hit in 2016 when she simply acknowledged that rural coal jobs might vanish, but she spoke about those workers with genuine empathy: “We’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.”
Trump and Musk, however, actively defame federal workers, while treating them like garbage. Entry-level employees, many of them recent graduates, are the most vulnerable to arbitrary cuts and furloughs. They’ve been plunged into a slowing job market with an influx of young professionals.
Longtime employees with families have had their hours and pay drastically cut and are facing imminent termination. When Musk claims these reductions in force are all for cause, he’s outright lying. There’s been nowhere near enough time for an actual thorough review. Musk’s bull in the china shop approach is anything but efficient. It’s deliberately cruel and sadistic.
Musk/Trump administration’s rapid dismantling of USAID has left workers posted in dangerous hotspots stranded and seriously concerned for their safety. Earlier this month, USAID direct hires working overseas were given just 30 days to return home unless an “essential” employee. Yet, no clear plan for accomplishing this was forthcoming. Some employees in the late stage of pregnancy can’t safely travel during that limited window. A USAID employee details in an affidavit a medical horror story involving his pregnant wife, who was not medevac-ed for emergency health care because of Trump/Musk directives. Their senator intervened on their behalf but it was too late.
Many employees had committed to year-long postings. The administration could’ve let those naturally wind down, but instead they just fired them all — many of whom have children enrolled in local schools.
U.S. diplomats lost access to embassy systems designed to protect them and their family. USAID contractors posted in dangerous locations have reported that their emails were deactivated before they could confirm how they’d return home.
USAID staffers posted in Congo have stated in affidavits for a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration that they were basically abandoned during a period of looting and political violence in Congo’s capital city last month. They were left on their own to evacuate their families. Staffers describe fleeing with just their backpacks and arriving in Washington, D.C., without a home, agency paychecks, or job prospects.
There’s been considerable debate over whether the executive branch can unilaterally reject funding Congress has previously approved. The separation of powers is a fundamental constitutional principle that Trump and his GOP stooges are clearly ignoring. However, when the Trump/Musk administration refuses to honor the government’s past financial commitments, Americans stationed overseas worry they could become homeless in a foreign country because their housing is government sponsored.
‘Shock and awe’
It’s become disturbingly clear that Trump and Musk won’t accept any judicial restraint on their actions. Musk shrieked Saturday on X, “If ANY judge ANYWHERE can stop EVERY Presidential action EVERYWHERE, we do NOT live in a democracy.”
Trump, who’s openly threatened judges who block his illegal orders, ominously declared on social media, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Immediately after U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who Trump appointed, blocked the administration from placing 2,200 USAID workers on leave, Vice President JD Vance insisted that “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” (Vance attended Yale Law School so probably at least heard of Marbury v. Madison.)
Trump has said that he’d abide by the courts’ rulings pending appeal, but I wouldn’t trust Trump as far as the closest door. USAID staffers were reportedly told early on that Trump “could not have a higher tolerance for legal risk,” as he likely feels emboldened by the Supreme Court ruling that he enjoys immunity for so-called “official” acts. Besides, he has the nation’s resources behind him, and USAID employees have relatively few.
While many USAID employees remain in limbo during a protracted legal battle, Trump and Musk are eagerly exploiting the chaos they’ve created to demoralize them. That is perhaps the larger strategy — mistreat loyal employees until they resign themselves to their fates, while making it impossible for USAID to function.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a transparently face-saving memo on January 28 approving an exemption to Trump’s funding freeze for any “life-saving humanitarian assistance.” (Rubio’s exemption order implied that a significant amount of funding went to abortions, diversity programs, and transgender surgeries — another lie.) Aid groups were still left confused over whether they could resume their vital work.
Despite Rubio’s supposed exemptions, “life-saving humanitarian assistance” remain derailed. Soup kitchens were shut down in Sudan. Hospitals in Thailand are turning away war refugees suffering from life-threatening illnesses. U.S.-funded Ukrainian groups can no longer supply firewood to residents on the front line of Putin’s war.
Meanwhile, Trump is exerting pressure on USAID staff to keep them quiet. An internal memo from Thursday warns that any “unauthorized engagement externally with the press or others is subject to discipline, including dismissal.” USAID Inspector General Paul Martin was fired last week after warning that the administration’s unclear guidance put more than $500 million worth of food assistance at risk of spoilage. In normal times, obvious attempts to cover up the human impact from a botched policy directive would’ve been a scandal in itself. Now, it’s just a Tuesday.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq, the military pummeled the enemy into submission through relentless, overwhelming force. This was described as a “shock and awe” campaign, and Trump has turned those tactics against American citizens, who have faithfully served the nation’s interests.
A recent CNN article had a heart-wrenching quote from a USAID diplomat posted overseas. “We are all emotionally distraught,” he said. “We feel like psychological warfare is being waged against us.”
That’s exactly what this is.
Trump declared in his day one executive order that the “United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
We want to believe he’s wrong, but if enough Americans support Trump’s abandonment of the nation’s global responsibilities, maybe America has become as selfish and short-sighted as Trump. And if non-sociopathic Republicans retreat into the delusion of rejecting as “fake news” the obvious destruction Trump/Musk have inflicted, their evil will prevail.
Every American should care that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have dismantled USAID. Not just because most of their actions have violated the law. Not just because they have unleashed chaos and suffering on the world with less concern than you’d show when swatting a fly. Not just because they have spread outright lies about Americans who serve on the front lines of the nation’s humanitarian and disaster relief efforts. We should care about all these things and more, because Musk and Trump have spent the past few weeks hollowing out America until all that’s left are seven very small letters.
Sadopopulism is honestly a winning strategy for the unreconstructed. Hell a lot of the farmers voting for him didn't know, didn't care that they were getting consumers for the product that they make for the valuable work USAID does.
But in the end a whole lot of Americans voted because they wanted the ethnic cleansing President Klan Robe promised...in the open. They were side by side with him when he heaped blood libel upon innocent Haitians in Ohio.
It was never about the economy. It was all about the hate, bringing America back to the time when it was "great," when vulnerable minorities were under their thumb and segregation could be practiced openly without reproach. And they're willing to slit their own necks to do it.
An isolated America is more in thrall to the unreconstructed too. That's why our crack foreign policy team and the useless (nominal) vice president are out there breaking things.
And of course, the last thing is that USAID is targeted as more regulatory capture because they were investigating Apartheid Clyde cheating the system. I think I shall expect the NHTSA (which has an open investigation on his self-driving crapware) to be gutted next if it has not already been so. or at least open investigations to cease.
For criminal activities President Klan Robe is there to do, Pam Bondi is his hatchet lady to destroy those cases, of course.
Elect a transnational criminal enterprise to unitary power and you're gonna get this.
We saw a glimpse of this cruelty when he fired James Comey while he was traveling for work, stranding him across the country. It was not as big a deal because Comey could afford to fly back but it showed just what a nasty piece of shit we are dealing with (great job asking for more of that, dumb shit voters!). This is about hurting people, period.
This saves no money, and fuck anyone in the media who even accepts the framing that this does save money—this will all cost us more in the long run as we are already seeing as they try to rehire staff. It’s also of course illegal.
Bill Clinton, a man I have no fondness for, did lay off lots of feds in the ‘90s (such shrinking of government is why Republicans loved him so much and the Clinton years are so famous for kindness between the parties) but he did it in accordance with law—advanced notice, offering other positions to downsized employees, actually determining which positions were not necessary and involving all stakeholders. This is not that. It’s looting and destroying and that’s the only way to describe this illegal action by an Afrikaaner freak who never should have been put in charge but when you elect a dementia patient, this is what you get.
Pain is on our way and if you think you’re immune, try to imagine an economy that’s about to have hundreds of thousands of skilled employees suddenly looking for work.