Crimes against humanity
We need to make a bigger issue of what happened to the world when Elon Musk decimated USAID.
Elon Musk left the Trump administration in May, but the world is still reeling from his tenure there. As the head of DOGE, Musk helped decimate many different parts of the federal government, but his most impactful action in that role was the destruction of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID was established in 1961 by then-President John F. Kennedy to help aid economic, social and educational progress in developing nations. Kennedy believed this was essential, not only because he thought it would help reduce Soviet influence around the world, but because he felt the world would simply be a better, safer place if these countries were on a path to success.
"We are, I am convinced, on the threshold of a truly united and major effort by the free industrialized nations to assist the less-developed nations on a long-term basis," Kennedy said in 1961.
The agency funded crucial programs that focused on decreasing poverty, improving global health, feeding the hungry and more. It was the epitome of what political scientists call "soft power," and it benefited millions of people around the globe.
Through DOGE, Musk was able to gut USAID. When Donald Trump took office in January, USAID had over 10,000 employees. All but a few hundred of those employees were reportedly fired during Musk's dismantling of the agency. Around 83 percent of its programs were terminated. Billions of dollars in funding ended.
Research published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet in July found that roughly 14 million people could die worldwide by the year 2030 due to the cuts that occurred at USAID. It was estimated in early November that 600,000 people had already died because of those cuts, with two-thirds of them being children.
I think it is fair to say that this is a crime against humanity. It is a staggering number of deaths. Beyond those many deaths, the world is now less protected from the spread of disease, more people are starving, more people are living in extreme poverty and the world's opinion of the United States is markedly worse.
What strikes me, as I consider this, is the lack of accountability. Musk is the world's richest man, and he's no longer in government. He will face no consequences for his conduct. He gets to keep living his life as if nothing happened, while people will continue to die due to what was done to USAID.
Thor Benson
Furthermore, Trump is not being held to account for what occurred here. This took place under his administration. He arguably bears the most responsibility for it. However, it seems Trump, perhaps intentionally, orchestrated a situation where Musk could take the heat for some of the administration's most controversial actions and then exit the government and wait for Americans to forget anything happened at all.
With that in mind, I think it is imperative that Democrats make an issue of this atrocity that we are witnessing. It may not be the message that's going to get them the most votes, and they can decide what that will be, but it is certainly worthwhile to loudly condemn the scores of deaths around the world that are only occurring because of decisions that were made on Trump's watch.
If you can't make an issue of that, then I'm not sure what you can make an issue of. Most Americans surely do not know what the end of these many USAID programs led to, and they must be informed of the horrors that this president has unleashed around the world.
These deaths will continue until we change course, so those who do condemn what's happening here must also call for a reversal of these actions by the Trump administration. It seems unlikely this administration will undo what it's done, but it's certainly worth fighting for. Countless lives hang in the balance.
