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USAID’s Self-Destruction: Inside the Disastrous Aftermath of Elon's Cuts [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-15
The abrupt and chaotic dismantling of USAID is finally facing internal scrutiny—but only after thousands of workers have been laid off, billions of dollars in contracts have been canceled, and life-saving programs have been left in limbo. Following the Trump administration’s directive to terminate over 83% of the agency’s contracts, USAID has begun a so-called “postmortem” review to determine how badly its operations have been gutted. But with entire global initiatives already shut down and international trust in the agency at an all-time low, this review feels more like an autopsy on an organization that was murdered in broad daylight.
The scale of destruction is staggering. USAID officials are now scrambling to assess the damage, reviewing how the terminations were carried out and whether proper protocols were followed—or if the entire process was as reckless and legally dubious as it appeared. Programs that supported public health, infrastructure, education, and humanitarian aid in over 100 countries were axed with little to no warning, leaving implementing partners scrambling to figure out if they were supposed to wrap up their work, destroy sensitive data, or simply disappear without answers. The lack of transparency and coordination has already triggered potential legal disputes, with terminated contractors arguing that the agency may have violated standard federal procedures in its rush to execute Musk and Trump’s aggressive budget cuts.
Internally, USAID is struggling with its own identity crisis. With a hollowed-out workforce and remaining employees working under constant uncertainty, morale has plummeted. Officials acknowledge that the agency’s reputation as a reliable development partner has been severely damaged, especially as rival powers like China step in to fill the void left by the U.S. retreat from foreign aid. This self-inflicted wound is already weakening America’s global influence, and it’s unclear if USAID will ever fully recover.
The so-called postmortem review is unlikely to change much, aside from confirming what the world already knows: that USAID’s collapse was orchestrated by a leadership that neither understood nor cared about the agency’s critical role in diplomacy, development, and global stability. The real question is whether any political will is left to undo the damage—or if USAID will simply become another casualty of Musk and Trump’s war on government itself.
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