Americans Should Mourn the Loss of USAID Caused by Trump

I just now listened to a Council on Foreign Relations webinar entitled “The Future of Strategic Religious Engagement in U.S. Foreign Policy.” It was a panel moderated by Peter Mandaville, former federal government official and now senior researcher of the Berkley Center. The panelists were Melissa Nozell, Dave Hunsicker, and Knox Thames, all experts in religious freedom and peace building.

U.S. Agency of International Development Closed

The phenomena prompting this webinar is that the present, and second, Donald Trump administration has withdrawn federal government efforts at promoting religious freedom and peace building. One of the main ways it has done this is by closing certain federal government agencies that previous, recent presidential administrations of both Democrats and Republicans had been involved.

This alarming loss of U.S. government efforts toward religious freedom and peace building has been most noticeable by the Trump administration closing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last July 1. USAID was a humanitarian agency that tried to alleviate hunger and poverty in the world and promote peace. The Trump administration terminated 83% of USAID’s humanitarian programs and fired thousands of it employees. Whatever was left of this dismantled USAID was absorbed by the State Department.

Donald Trump has characterized his presidential administration with the branding MAGA, an acronym for “Make America Great Again.” On the contrary, Donald Trump is ruining the reputation of the USA. What made America great was its spirit of giving in helping needy people in the world. That’s what the U.S. Agency for International Development did, and Donald Trump and his administration took it away. Donald Trump’s branding should be MABA—Make America Bad Again as it did about slavery.

Helping People Worldwide “Not” a “U.S. Interest”

This loss obviously was a part of Elon Musk’s DOGE program last year, a reduction of government waste, saying USAID was “not aligned with U.S. interests.” That was false. Experts estimate that the closing of USAID will result in 23 million children in the world not having access to public education and 95 million people losing basic their healthcare, resulting in 3 million preventable deaths per year. That’s something to mourn about.

USAID and U.S. foreign aid has always been popular with the American public because it has been a giving people whereas Trump and many people he puts in government are the opposite of philanthropists. And peace building is a huge government interest. This truth is being reinforced in the American psyche right now as President Trump is about to “unleash hell” on Iran in the U.S.-Israel war on Iran if it does not make a peace deal with Trump by 8 PM ET today.

How to Restore U.S. Peace Building

This CFR panel discussed how these previous government efforts at protecting religious and peace building might be restored to our nation’s federal government. David Hunsicker, who was with USAID, reminded us that although religion is always a controversial topic in society, “religious actors” have always played a vital role in peace building. Knox Thames suggested, likewise, that such efforts toward restoring government peace building needed to be done by faith-based NGOs.

Melissa Nozell spoke of her efforts at diplomacy training and peace building as an officer with the U.S. Institute for Peace.

Conclusion

Probably the most famous statement ever made about peace was by Jesus of Nazareth in one of his beatitudes in his Sermon on the Mount that seemed to have begun his public ministry. It was this: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will called children of God” (Matthew 5.9).

Three weeks into the Iran war, President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said of peace talks with Iranian leaders, “We negotiate with bombs.” Yet this war monger—who constantly blows up people-filled boats in the Caribbean Sea as alleged drug smugglers without proving it—claims to be a Christian, holds Bible studies in the government, and declares to U.S. troops that the Iran war is Armageddon leading to the second coming of Christ. HOGWASH! True American Christians should both mourn such lies and call them out.