MEKELE, ETHIOPIA — An aid worker distributes measured portions of yellow lentils to residents of Geha subcity at an aid operation run by USAID, Catholic Relief Services and the Relief Society of Tigray on June 16, 2021 in Mekele, Ethiopia. The distribution center at Geha distributed aid to over 5,000 beneficiaries a day at that time, affected by armed conflict, drought and a locust infestation that year. Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images.
From 2007 until 2020, I traveled to some of the most violent countries on earth: Iraq, Colombia, Myanmar.
I did this on behalf of the American people, as a staff person at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally created institution. I worked closely with colleagues in the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in our shared mission responding to human suffering in places where states were unwilling or unable to do so (or were themselves the source of their citizens’ suffering).
Now, living back in my hometown of Minneapolis, I serve in church ministry but remain engaged in global peacebuilding, recognizing that my work to protect justice and community care locally is deeply connected to the work I have and continue to do overseas.
In our world, the local is global and the global is local; the fates of all people are interconnected.
For this reason, the full-frontal assault launched by President Trump and his allies — including multi-billionaire South African Elon Musk — against U.S. foreign assistance programs, and specifically USAID, should chill us. It will lead to millions of preventable deaths and make everyone — including Minnesotans —less safe.
Their actions are wrong-headed, dangerous, and likely illegal. The effects are already being felt. It’s not too late to turn this around, but it will be soon if our elected officials don’t act swiftly through various mechanisms to push back against this elite capture and dismantling of our government foreign assistance program.
USAID employees were recently told not to report to work. This followed a series of tweets by Elon Musk saying he would “kill” the agency, which was created by Congress in 1961 to consolidate the government’s various foreign assistance programs.
Musk, an unelected ally of Trump who has not received Senate confirmation nor vetting, was , appointed by Trump to the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which has no legal standing and does not have the authority to “kill” a congressionally created and funded agency. But, he’s plowing ahead despite this inconvenience. Several USAID senior officials reportedly sought to prevent him and his staff from gaining access to their intelligence computers, a move to protect the American people; these officials were subsequently sacked. If this isn’t the actions of a coup, I’m not sure what is.
Already, Trump’s 90-day freeze of foreign assistance has had devastating and deadly effects. These funds help contain the spread of deadly viruses like Ebola; engage in conflict prevention activities to mitigate the escalation of violence; prevent children from dying from malnourishment in countries affected by climate disasters; and, strengthen democratic institutions and independent media sources worldwide.
As a Christian minister, I appreciate that my taxpayer dollars are funding care for the vulnerable worldwide . In fact, as a follower of Jesus and a practitioner of tithing, I would love to see more than a mere 0.2% of our federal budget going towards this assistance.
And as a former diplomat, I know these efforts also serve our country’s national security interests. They make America safer; they protect Americans from rising violence, viral spread and global disorder.
The freeze has reportedly put our fellow Americans serving overseas — sometimes in dangerous places — in excruciating positions of having to decide whether to obey orders to refrain from giving life-saving medical care to children dying in front of their eyes, or to press on with their humanitarian work. I admire those who’ve persisted in caring for others, in defiance of Trump’s orders that would bring death. And, I worry for the fate of these fellow courageous and compassionate Americans whose lives of service have been suddenly thrown into chaos by their own government, among whom are Minnesotans, including one person with whom I graduated from Edina High School.
What is happening must be stopped. Congress must act. We — the American people — must act. Certainly, our foreign assistance programs can always be improvedand made more responsive to those they serve. But this ham-handed attempt to destroy them is not the way forward. And, I’ve no doubt this attack on USAID is Trump and Musk’s canary in the coal mine; if they do not face resistance to this illegal action, what’s to stop them from doing the same to other agencies that serve vulnerable populations, land, and water?
His disciples are said to have asked their rabbi, Jesus: “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’”
To which he replied: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25: 44-45)
May we heed his prophetic words.
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