The Aftermath of Feeding America's Credibility Into the Woodchipper [View all]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opinion/usaid-humanitarian-aid-america.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KlA.sOGH.o6LyxpbYviyl&smid=url-share

Last February, Elon Musk boasted of “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” as President Trump kicked off his second term with an unanticipated assault on the agency. A year later, the brutal fallout is coming into focus. Humanitarian aid last year reached 25 million fewer people than in 2024 despite rising global need. More than 2,000 health clinics have closed in crisis zones around the world. Global food aid funding dropped by 40 percent from 2024 to 2025. Millions of people have lost access to critical H.I.V. treatment and testing.

This damage is severe on its own merits. But it also previewed something larger about America’s engagement with the world under an “America first” foreign policy. An administration that began its tenure by abandoning aid recipients has proceeded to alienate treaty allies over Greenland and launch legally dubious military strikes. In retrospect, U.S.A.I.D.’s early demise looks like a canary in the geopolitical coal mine, heralding a dark shift in America’s values.

The brutality of U.S.A.I.D.’s closure and the disregard for the human toll betrayed a vision of a crueler, meaner, more insular world — one in which America aspires not to any pretense of moral leadership but simply to naked power, dominance and extractive self-interest. U.S.A.I.D., after all, was not only a humanitarian endeavor; it was also a symbol of who America seeks to be in the world, and the sort of world America seeks to build. Mr. Trump’s new order, inaugurated with his assault on U.S.A.I.D., is now corroding America’s influence and standing and leaving global leaders with little choice but to treat the United States as an erratic adversary rather than a stable ally.

The impact of U.S.A.I.D.’s demise also provides a preview of the shattering toll of this approach to global affairs on other countries and communities, particularly those living in humanitarian crises. After Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled more than 80 percent of U.S. relief and development programs, total U.S. spending on lifesaving humanitarian relief dropped from over $14 billion in 2024 to just $3.7 billion in 2025. Withholding $10 billion for global relief amounts to a rounding error in federal budget terms (not to mention a pittance relative to the estimated $300 billion increase in Mr. Musk’s net worth last year). But those funds are critical to sustaining people’s lives in crisis zones, from Sudan to Bangladesh to Gaza to refugee camps in Kenya and Chad.

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