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Cartoon: Elon Musk Endangers the World [1]
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Date: 2025-02-04
On Monday, the Trump administration shuttered USAID, a federal agency that funds humanitarian and development projects worldwide. Elon Musk, head of the ad-hoc Department of Government Efficiency, called the aid agency "a criminal organization" -- which only makes sense if you consider the fact that the federal government is now run by a criminal with thirty-four felony convictions.
President John F. Kennedy established the agency during the Cold War to lift people out of poverty worldwide. It's since become one of the world's leading development organizations, supplying life-saving disaster relief, feeding and sheltering vulnerable communities, fighting the spread of infectious diseases like malaria, and promoting human rights.
One critical USAID program, the , has helped humanitarian agencies predict famines and deliver emergency assistance to communities ahead of disaster. The organization has made the world safer and healthier for more than 50 years -- and all on less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2016 alone, USAID provided food assistance to more than 53 million people across 47 hard-hit countries . One critical USAID program, the Famine Emergency Warning Systems Network , has helped humanitarian agencies predict famines and deliver emergency assistance to communities ahead of disaster. The organization has made the world safer and healthier for more than 50 years -- and all on less than 1 percent of the U.S. federal budget.
, one former senior USAID official said that closing USAID will give adversaries like Russia and China an opportunity to spread their own ideologies and make the world less safe for Americans. But JFK intended for USAID to serve a secondary purpose: counter Soviet influence and keep the world a democratic one friendly to U.S. interests. This organization not only serves as an enduring symbol of the American people's generosity; it also pedals U.S. interests through soft power. By closing USAID, especially with so little warning, Trump and Musk have yanked lifesaving assistance away from millions of people. This will do more than cause many -- including children -- to die needlessly; it'll fuel conflicts and mass migrations, allow diseases to flourish in pandemics, trigger state collapse, and embolden anti-American terrorists. In an interview with NBC News , one former senior USAID official said that closing USAID will give adversaries like Russia and China an opportunity to spread their own ideologies and make the world less safe for Americans.
The cartoon depicts Musk smilingly cutting the tether of U.S. foreign aid, seemingly unaware that he risks global stability plunging into water filled with the predators of terrorism, pandemics, famines, state collapse, and mass migrations.
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