It's a revolting parallel. On one side we have billionaire Elon Musk, unelected, bragging about "feeding USAID into the wood chipper" instead of going to "great parties"; a White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, asserting that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had funded a transgender opera in Colombia and the promotion of diversity, equality and inclusion ("DEI," the new anti-Woke banner) in Serbian workplaces; and a US president claiming that Hamas had received $100 million (€95 million) in condoms from USAID.
On the other side, we have lines of starving children in Sudan waiting in vain for their ration of Plumpy'Nut, an ultra-rich peanut paste that has become essential in the fight against malnutrition; hundreds of babies being born with AIDS in Haiti, Zambia or Mozambique for lack of antiviral treatment, a third of whom will never celebrate their first birthday; and persecuted LGBTQ+ South American migrants who are seeing their charitable shelter close its doors in Mexico, with the street as their only outlook. This is how a Dantesque butterfly effect has instantly transformed a government scandal into an instant global crisis.
In early February, at the urging of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration decided to suspend USAID's activities for 90 days – bringing all programs of the world's leading provider of humanitarian aid to a screeching halt. With a budget of $44 billion in 2024, USAID provides food, water and health care to victims of natural disasters and malnutrition; it fights malaria, Ebola and avian flu in dozens of countries; it guarantees access to drinking water; and, it supports agricultural and economic development initiatives.
42% of global humanitarian aid
In South Sudan, its action represents 7% of gross domestic product. Since 2000, the agency estimates it has saved 11.7 million lives and prevented 2.1 billion cases of malaria. But, for Musk, it's a "viper's nest of radical-left marxists who hate America" – an opinion that justifies closing the agency's website, preventing the public from accessing funded programs. Beyond the democratic scandal, in their libertarian-macho hubris, mixing lies, violence and intolerance, the wealthiest are thereby playing with the lives of millions of the world's poorest and most destitute.
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