Summary
The Trump administration has dismantled USAID, placing 4,080 staffers on leave and firing 1,600 more, eliminating over 90% of the agency’s foreign aid contracts totaling $60 billion.
Affected employees were given just 15 minutes to clear their workspaces under strict security.
This action, led by Trump and Elon Musk, proceeded without congressional authorization, though a Congressional Research Service report states such approval is required.
Legal challenges continue, with the Supreme Court temporarily blocking a federal judge’s order to release frozen funds.
For some reason the average US citizen thinks aid makes up 10% or more of our budget, when it’s much closer to 1% or less. It’s again a propaganda problem, perhaps since our real costly agencies (mostly military) would rather not be rightfully defunded.
The US spends $916 billion on defense, just under double what China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia spend on their militaries combined. We could easily slash 10 or even 20% from our military budget and we would still be far and away the most powerful military on the planet.
There is also a huge amount of waste going on AFAIK.
People in charge are knowingly spending money on stuff they don’t need, just to spend their budget. Because if they spend less, the get less budget next round. They are essentially incentiviced to waste money.
Yup. But for whatever reason most Americans don’t seem to know that, they even think education is more than military. I don’t think it’s for lack of trying. Misinformation is strong, especially if you listen to right wing media.
Don’t worry, China will be happy to pick up the slack.
Yeah. This is the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. The goodwill and passive benefits that came from this were worth 10x what we paid into it.
We’re going to let greed ruin our entire country…all so that a few billionaires get a little bit of extra money.
Yeah. This is the dumbest thing we’ve ever done.
Aw c’mon bro that’s not fair. It’s only five weeks in, give it some time to get going! I predict some dumb things coming up from this exciting administration that will liquefy people’s entire zeitgeist. You’ll look back on this and be nostalgic for simpler times.
The rich are a disease that can’t stop stealing money from all of us. And the politicians involved don’t care if this place is a shit heap, as long as they’re in power. Which is another disease on society.
It could not be more apparent that these guys don’t care about democracy, the US, or the people.
It’s not (just) greed. It’s sabotage.
goodwill and passive benefits
Donald Trump is extremely dim and doesn’t understand diplomacy or soft power at all. He thinks strength means making others suffer, and he’s too stupid to see how this might not be a smart move in the longer term.
Either that or he’s doing it deliberately to weaken the USA, because he doesn’t work for the USA.
I’m sure another strongly worded letter from a judges bench will surely resolve this.
Maybe this time they’ll use the word ORDERED in all caps to show how super serious they are.
I mean, they’re clearly not serious enough to actually threaten consequences for non-compliance. No need to get crazy here or anything. They’ll just use all caps. And then in the next one, they’ll use super-duper-serious wording like “Or else.”
Don’t worry the Supreme Court already stepped in… To protect Trump.
Specifically they accepted the administration’s argument that a Wednesday deadline is too early to allow an “orderly review” and Friday is a much better day.
I’m not sure what Roberts thinks an orderly review looks like but I’d hate to be in the blast radius when he does spring cleaning.
They only adhere to court rulings that allow them to continue breaking the law.
Who needs soft power anyway…
