Dismantling USAID is a moral and strategic tragedy

Make no mistake about it: USAID was and is indispensable, no matter its faults. The Trump administration’s wholesale demolition of the agency will cause untold suffering to millions of innocent people. USAID provides massive funding to essential programs for people desperate for help. That money is mostly allocated to large NGOs such as Save the Children or Catholic Relief Services and then redistributed to smaller international or local organizations. And yes, some of that money disappears along the way, as Elon Musk and others have pointed out. But a huge amount of it does get through and does fund absolutely essential humanitarian needs: clinics in remote areas where there are no medical services, food for people facing the threat of malnourishment or even starvation, and AIDS cocktails that keep people alive. In an immensely irresponsible act, Trump and Musk are literally taking bread and penicillin out of the hands of the hungry and sick.

There is an undeniable ethical imperative to help the needy, especially in a world so profoundly interconnected ecologically, economically and geopolitically. But even for its own self-interest, the United States can’t afford to eliminate this major nexus of its soft power. In the new cold war underway in Africa, it’s China against the US and Europe, and so far China has a leg up. Africa matters because its population is young and dynamic and because it possesses enormous mineral resources as well as much of the world’s still uncultivated arable land. What people think matters and USAID’s presence is an indisputable factor in keeping America great in the eyes of major swathes of Africa’s population. Soft power is power. It’s a bulwark in the face of China’s cynical and determined gambit in Africa.

For the past 18 years, my organization Tevel b’Tzedek has worked in international development in some of the poorest places in the world. From the perspective of a small organization with staff that lives and works in remote, impoverished villages, I have my criticism of USAID. For example, USAID has been overly focused on business and entrepreneurship, ignoring the livelihood challenges of illiterate small farmers who are the majority population in many countries. And still and yet, with its immense resources, USAID consistently also breathed life-giving funds into dedicated local and international organizations that were and are saving and transforming lives.

Trump and company are not wrong to question USAID programs and call for reforms – that is the job of any new administration. They can and perhaps should name a new USAID director, and comb through its activities. After they understand what’s up and what’s down, they can cancel programs they perceive as wasteful or inspired by political ideology. But dismantling USAID and gutting its programs? That’s a really bad idea.

The Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah, remarks that “tzedek,” righteousness, when it is disconnected from “mishpat,” compassionate judgment, often veers into destructiveness. There are any number of examples of ruin caused by people convinced of their righteousness who leaped into action without reflection, discernment or compassion. In their zeal, Trump and Musk act like true believers whose sense of righteousness blocks true reflection and prevents them from applying intelligent judgment to a complex reality. That’s a generous reading of their motivation – I shudder to think that they simply don’t care.

Let’s not let this happen without putting up a fight. Let’s raise our voices for those who cannot, and for the idea of the United States as a benevolent force in the world, a counterpoint to a voracious and dictatorial China. Let’s protest the shuttering of essential medical services, the locking away of food that prevents malnutrition. Let’s not abandon the best of America, our potential for generosity and compassion, and our dream of a more beautiful world.