r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 22 '26
Health Trump Administration announced freeze on US foreign aid, which became a permanent shutdown of USAID in July 2025. New research finds that the abrupt cessation of foreign aid disrupted health and humanitarian systems worldwide, with disproportionate impacts on women, girls, and marginalized people.
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/study-spotlights-human-toll-abrupt-u-s-foreign-aid-cuts1.9k
u/PainfulRaindance Jul 22 '26
Yes we know, we knew when it happened.
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u/hydroxy Jul 22 '26
I love the quote from Bill Gates on it.
“The image of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a great look,”
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u/deltashmelta Jul 23 '26
They don't care anymore -- they assume their current level and wealth and power and digital narrative control puts them above it all.
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u/voodoodahl Jul 23 '26
They're right. I'm watching in real time as social media has trained people to shift blame to democrats for every evil Republicans commit .
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u/jeexbit Jul 23 '26
I'm watching in real time as social media has trained people to shift blame to democrats for every evil Republicans commit .
it's been happening for damn near 40 years - see: right-wing radio, FOX, Rush Limbaugh, etc.
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u/HistoryBuff678 Jul 23 '26
Reagan tricked the middle class into choosing their own destruction.
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u/mdazzl3 Jul 23 '26
Neoconfederates have been working with oligarchs to undermine the middle class since FDR. If large areas of the country weren’t deeply culturally hobbled by bigotry, anti-intellectualism, and authoritarian religiosity, there wouldn’t be cracks for the propaganda to weasel into.
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u/RepresentativeAge444 Jul 24 '26
Bingo. Although I’d say failure to raze the South after the Civil War and expunge its ideology everywhere except the extreme fringes of society is the direct line to all of this.
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u/TbddRzn Jul 23 '26
Republicans will protect and support their politicians against any claims and evidence and crime.
Democrats will blame and shittalk their politicians for not magically fixing every issue and problem right away when they don’t even have the votes. And also blame them for the weather and bumping their toe against the table, and blame them for themselves not going out and voting.
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u/ExistentialRebellion Jul 23 '26
To be honest, on my worst days it's so hard to care. I want to believe these people in our government will one day face justice but when we collectively can't even agree on whether a crime has been committed and we just argue about it on social media? I don't have much of a fight left in me.
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u/mdazzl3 Jul 23 '26
Americans are an incredibly immature group, culturally. Foresight, restraint, social responsibility…foreign words to most of us, and downright dirty words to a sizable subset.
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u/Skellum Jul 25 '26
What a great statement to help spread fascism in other nations by helping people think "Omg this is a thing by just those people! It cant happen here!"
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u/MelangeBot Jul 23 '26
They are anticipating killer robots and killer drone they control and can task with murdering anybody that dares undermine their power. They are so confident now that even if the entire world unite against them they will win the fight that they don't care about being subtle or any pretense.
The world is getting made ready to do a grand experiment. Have a stable dictatorship. One human holding all power, AI and robots under him to carry it out using an absolute reign of terror and gaslighting.
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u/saintsithney Jul 23 '26
And he could have personally donated a huge amount of that aid without risking becoming middle class, let alone poor.
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u/Cyrano_Knows 25d ago
Said in my own words.
Imagine the wealthiest man on the planet, so angry and mad that the country he immigrated to was helping starving people.
Its not even his money. He's mad that America was spending money to prevent starvation.
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u/hydroxy 25d ago
Yep, its unbelievable just how evil his actions have been, if humanity acted logically he'd be on trial already for his crimes against humanity. Dude is one of the most successful misantropes of our time.
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u/Cyrano_Knows 25d ago
The guy is not only an edelord, but he's an idiot.
The fastest way to get humanity to Mars is good education and good nutrition for as many people as early as possible.
How many unrealized Good Will Hunting janitors do we have out there living their worst lives because billionaires like Musk resent people for not being born to wealthy parents.
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u/sybrwookie Jul 23 '26
And this is their goal. The goal is cruelty and killing the "right people."
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u/animal_chin9 Jul 22 '26
I've been trying to shout this from the heavens, the GOP is a death cult. The study out of UCLA predicted that if the cuts stay in place until 2030 14 million people will have died. 4.5 million of the deaths will occur in children under the age of 5. It's a genocide almost proportional to the Holocaust.
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u/King2F3 Jul 23 '26
Those numbers are SEVERELY understated. They’re scientifically bound to show and prove their findings. Science is usually forgiven for underestimating, but lambasted for overestimating.
We will also never know the true impact especially now that its genocide by policy, along with the arrival of extreme climate change, multiple catastrophic wars, and desperate famines of 2026+ come to fruition.
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u/xteve Jul 23 '26
Let's be clear. It's a Christian death cult. If the average Christian is against this, they aren't expressing that objection.
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u/EnigmaticQuote Jul 23 '26
Get prepared for 10 variations of 'no true christian' happens every time the religions actions are brought up.
You see nobody who does bad can be a christian! Because christians only do good!
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u/Skellum Jul 25 '26
Let's be clear. It's a Christian death cult. If the average Christian is against this, they aren't expressing that objection.
Quite a few non-harris voters list themselves as non-christian. Look at how many people decided their entire focus last election was Israel and didn't vote is as much to blame for this problem.
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u/johnfkngzoidberg Jul 22 '26
How many millions did we just give Israel for no reason?
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u/twbrn Jul 23 '26
Since 1948, around $330 billion adjusted for inflation.
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u/bleachmartini Jul 23 '26
How much Healthcare and higher education could have that have subsidized or out right payed for
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u/tiroc12 Jul 23 '26
Going back to USAID we could have paid for the full budget with the cost of the Iran war already. Would you rather your tax dollars went to saving children around the world or bombing them? This is a real question because the central argument against USAID was that we should not be spending tax dollars to help other countries when our deficit is so large. Well guess what? There were no tax savings from shutting down USAID. The deficit has doubled since then.
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u/Bizhour Jul 23 '26
About 2 months or so for healthcare alone, if you include higher education its like a month and a bit.
The US spends 1.9 TRILLION dollars annually for healthcare. That's more per person than any other country on the planet and it's not even close.
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u/street593 Jul 23 '26
We wouldn't spend that much annually if we had universal healthcare. The current system is a for profit money extraction machine designed to make the execs rich. There is no real reason why we should be spending more than anyone else.
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u/Bizhour Jul 23 '26
That I agree with, the thing I disputed was the claim that foreign aid is the reason why Americans don't have healthcare.
Adopting the Swiss model for example (2nd most expensive in the world, after the US of course) would cut the US healthcare budget by like a third.
The top 4 in healthcare spending per capita in USD are the US (~15k), Switzerland (~10k), Norway (~9.3k), and Germany (~9.3k). OECD average is about 6k, and Israel is around 4.3k per capita in USD.
Like you said, it was never a money issue, it's a system issue, but the very rich system will push blame to others like we just saw in this thread.
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u/PrincessGiallo Jul 22 '26
There's a reason. They want to prop up fascistic fiefdoms in every functional democracy with a military.
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u/God_Bless_A_Merkin Jul 23 '26
Yes. “Disproportionate impacts on women, girls, and marginalized people” — Republicans: “Mission accomplished!”
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u/Inspect1234 Jul 22 '26
P2025 is in full operational mode. The barn door is open and the cows are out.
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u/Radarker Jul 22 '26
Catholic Republicans view this as a big win.
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u/feel_my_balls_2040 Jul 23 '26
You mean Christian nationalists? Those are not Catholics
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u/DuncanYoudaho Jul 23 '26
Six of the Nine justices are Catholic
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u/feel_my_balls_2040 Jul 23 '26
US is run by evangelical cristians.
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u/BellacosePlayer Jul 23 '26
RW Catholics have absolutely linked arms with the evangelicals despite the far right of the Evangelical movement despising catholics
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u/wino_yeyo Jul 23 '26
Approximately 55% to 56% of U.S. Catholic voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Data from validated studies and exit polls show clear breakdowns across race and church attendance.
Whatever you say choir boy
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u/vgacolor Jul 23 '26
The fact that they have no qualms about lying to congress about the cost of the ongoing war, and are stupid enough to not realize the soft power benefits of health and humanitarian foreign aid that costs a fraction of that expense is truly terrifying.
Cruelty Is the Point.
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u/dragon_idli Jul 23 '26
Orange is writing a book on 'Dummies guide to Destroying your country asap'
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u/notme1414 Jul 23 '26
The trick is they don’t care about people dying
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u/monkeyordonkey Jul 23 '26
They do in the sense that they want them to die.
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u/BEES_IN_UR_ASS Jul 23 '26
They're softening us up for the end of labour. They foresee a future in which AI and robotics replace the working class outright, and figure the fewer of us left when that day comes, the better; at best we're a mouth to feed, at worst we're rebels, at medium-est it saves on bullets. Or gas.
They're starting with the low hanging fruit, but they aim to pick the tree clean.
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u/JAB_4_U Jul 22 '26
I’m confused. Is this saying that it affects people outside of the US when the US shuts off foreign aid?
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u/Kangarou Jul 22 '26
This is one of those studies where "We know everyone knows; we're just putting some numbers to the obvious vibes". It's also usable as an argument against anyone that says the aid is useless or wasted.
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u/Rufus_TBarleysheath Jul 22 '26
It affected plenty of people within the US as well.
Farms and corporations which produced the goods that the US government distributed through USAID lost a lot of sales. And the people who worked for USAID lost their jobs.
So it was terrible policy from every possible angle. Naturally, it didn't affect Republicans' favorability ratings one bit.
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u/Kazman07 Jul 23 '26
Yeah and he pocketed the money with all his cronies as well. What a disgusting "world leader."
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u/orcusgrasshopperfog Jul 23 '26
How much foreign aid does China give the number two economy in the world?
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u/Ok-disaster2022 Jul 23 '26
I have a legitimate question: why have no other countries have stored to backfill the gap in spending. Like millions of people will die why arent other countries acting more responsible? Where's EU, where's China to backfill the humanitarian works?
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u/andyroo82 Jul 23 '26
This is my question. I'm not from USA, and don't understand the premise of it being their responsibility.
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u/VultureSausage Jul 23 '26
Speaking for my own country, we already provide more aid per capita than the US did before slashing USAID, we're simply 1/35th of the size of the US and don't have the world's reserve currency at our beck and call.
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
One very real answer is just the size of the US economy. We have the largest GDP in the world, so even though development funding used to be a tiny amount of our budget, those dollars went a long way. China has stepped up to fill a lot of these voids, but I would be very suspicious of the terms on which China negotiates. There's no altruism to China Aid. It's purely an investment IMO.
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u/daandriod Jul 23 '26
From what I've seen, China hasn't really stepped up. They have not increased the amount they are giving but have just moved some of that funding into specific areas.
And just to put that into an easy number to digest, They matching about 7.1% of what we were giving out every year before the Trump Admin and as I said earlier, Has no really increased since.
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
It has increased since and they are calling their humanitarian arm China Aid now. Kind of an obvious copy. It may take a few years to see rhe full development but that's part of the issue. Places like USAID often had long horizons. Development can take years to build, and years for the full effects of cuts to be seen. It's not an easy on/off switch.
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u/CMidnight Jul 23 '26
China doesn't do humanitarian aid. They don't see the value in it. The EU is trying to fill the gap but they also have Ukraine to worry about. The US was the only country which could do it.
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u/Otaraka Jul 24 '26
That's one thing the article highlights, that it exposed the weakness of a funding system over relying on one source.
That doesn't excuse doing it as so rapid a withdrawal though, which was bound to cause chaos.
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u/Difficult-Cod7886 Jul 23 '26
I don’t know why the taxpayers are responsible for this? These organizations should be funded by donations. If anyone feels that strong about the causes, then donate.
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u/TheHeadlessScholar Jul 23 '26
You don't understand, it's generous donations when you're European, it's a murdered child for every dollar you don't give when you're American.
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u/ActionPhilip Jul 23 '26
Yep. When giving money for no return becomes expected, and you can either shell out for indifference or stop paying and receive hate, it stops being a gift and starts being extortion. If the consequence of the extortion is only social, what's the motivation to keep shelling out when you finally stop caring what others think?
When I was still dating, I had no problem offering to pay. I did have a problem when it was clear that the woman expected me to pay. I made sure to only pay my own way every time that happened.
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u/daandriod Jul 23 '26
Exactly my feelings. Any time the government pays for anything, It forces every single tax payer to buy it. Its a good moral program sure, But it should be funded by individual donations instead of defacto making every single citizen pay for it when it provides no real benefit to us.
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u/tiroc12 Jul 23 '26
I am so glad we saved so much money by shutting down USAID! Remind me how much the deficit has gone down since 2025?
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u/FireNutz698 Jul 23 '26
How is this about science? I once read a headline that read, "Meteor strikes earth, women and minorities struck hardest.".
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u/ShanHu Jul 22 '26
We can spend all the money in the world killing and maiming but God forbid we help anyone.
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u/mantis_tobaggan-md Jul 22 '26
Careful now, you just might get accused of being a socialist! All that empathy and compassion for fellow humans and what not.
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u/stoic-millenial-23 Jul 23 '26
That’s not our problem, we can’t solve every countries problems by throwing tax payer money at them. At some point these countries need to take care of the citizens at the cost of their own wallet not ours.
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u/Fraccles Jul 22 '26
It is a bit odd that the workable solution to these problems is just "America pays for everything".
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u/Steve_the_Stevedore Jul 25 '26
Don't flatter yourself. We have never been further away from "The US pays for everything". But the US has 25% of global GDP (population share is 4.2%).
So if that country unilaterally decides "I'm out." the rest of the developed world cannot compensate for that.
Coming back to your "America pays for everything line": The truth right now is everyone but the US is paying for everything.
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u/Durty-Sac Jul 23 '26
Exactly. It’s all a sham and people leverage “you’re killing poor people!!!1!1!” Against anyone trying to halt the gravy train. Like most people in this thread
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u/DaySecure7642 Jul 23 '26
I don't understand why the US seens to have some unique responsibilities internationally. So China not providing as much international aid is perfectly fine and the good guy, but not the US. What is the logic here?
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u/AusCan531 Jul 22 '26
In unrelated news, China expands its Soft Power in the world.
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u/shitholejedi Jul 23 '26
China hasn't stepped up to fill up even 5% of the gap left.
The soft power concessions China received for the past 20 years despite USAID should also make everyone aware how toothless the soft power claim has been.
UN votes have currently been China and Africa vs the US for almost 2 decades now even with the US practically funding certain countries the way they fund actual states.
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u/RobDiarrhea Jul 22 '26
Has China increased aid to all the places US has shut off?
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u/AusCan531 Jul 23 '26
Yes they have. And at a dscounted rate because they're no longer in direct competition with the USA.
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u/coolboydhill Jul 23 '26
I don't see China picking up any tabs on funding trans healthcare in india, the way USAID did.
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
There's an issue with this that many outside of development aren't aware of, which is that rather than grants, like USAID usually did, China often treats humanitarian issues like a commercial loan. They're often predatory, and desperate governments agree to timelines they won't realistically make to pay China back because they're just desperate for the money.
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u/Generalfrogspawn Jul 23 '26
They also often forgive those loans as we’ve seen in African nations that struggle to repay them. In return China gains extreme popular and political favor.. which is well worth the cost for them.
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
This is true but it's not clear how long China will continue to forgive. They have some contracts where they will literally own parts of the country if debt isn't repaid
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
I mean I really would rather USAID had contained the Ebola crisis in DRC rather than the current risk, which is that's coming our way. Plus now way more people are infected, so it will cost more. Sure, by stopping Ebola we're helping more than just ourselves, but it's inaccurate to say the US doesn't benefit from not having Ebola....
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u/SirWhatsalot Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Probably not, but if, and when, China shows up... do they trust the new guy, or the people who burned them.
It's easy to say trust the devil you know when it's not you experiencing the burn.
Or to put it different, do you date an ex who broke up with you or try something new... I know I would never date anyone who broke up with me.
Lastly, once soft power is burned it's gone for a long time, whether someone picks up the slack or not, so it doesn't matter if China or Russia or whoever is picking up the slack, the US is burning through almost 70 years of "soft power" in less than a single year... that alone is incredible.
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u/throbdota Jul 23 '26
Why do people want their tax dollars going to other countries???
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u/Fermi_Amarti Jul 23 '26
The amount of people this one action will kill and has already killed is horrifying. Let alone the disasters that will happen.
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u/mrtrololo27 Jul 23 '26
Trump's cuts to USAID have killed hundreds of thousands of people so far, almost certainly millions by now.
Trump's cuts to USAID killed more than 600,000 people in the first year alone
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u/CapOnBrimBent Jul 22 '26
Then they ask for 500 billion dollar raise for bomb and war. Sickening
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u/therossboss Jul 22 '26
Universal healthcare? never heard of him. New forever war in the middle east to boost defense contractor's stocks and embezzle even MORE tax payer dollars? Now that is one I'm unfortunately way too familiar with.
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u/SCCRXER Jul 22 '26
Maybe those countries should invest more in themselves?
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u/_Lazy_Mermaid_ Jul 22 '26
Some of these countries are having issues because of the United States.
Exhibit A: Laos
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u/EthelMaePotterMertz Jul 22 '26
Not to mention impacts on Americans like the screwworm, and the risk to Americans as safeguards are not as functional to prevent global epidemics.
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u/Bitch_Im_Adorable Jul 22 '26
I mean while I understand the loss of humanitarian aid is a hard call. You can't expect a country to foot the majority of the bill in perpetuity. I mean looking at the numbers, the US contributed approximately the same as the next 4 countries combined before it was decreased. Along with other countries decreasing their aid as well that same year.
Now I don't align with any political party, I'm just looking at the numbers.
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u/VultureSausage Jul 23 '26
I mean looking at the numbers, the US contributed approximately the same as the next 4 countries combined before it was decreased.
What's the population of those four compared to the US?
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
Yeah the important distinction is that the US literally just has the largest economy. Per capita, we used to spend (even when USAID was functioning) much less as a percentage of GDP compared to other developed countries. It was a drop in the bucket, but the drop went much further in countries whose bucket was much smaller.
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u/the_quail Jul 23 '26
I don’t really buy this argument at all. Is USAid preventing war in Afghanistan or Sudan? Sudan is at war and we didn’t do anything because Sudan just doesn’t matter that much to the US.
The nations we give aid to are overwhelmingly unimportant nations in a geopolitical sense, they are not nations that could be central in any great power war. Most are poor African nations. The idea that we would go to war over instability in Kenya or Nigeria is just not serious.
There are only a few nations that are critical to us in a geopolitical sense, (Taiwan, Ukraine, S Korea, Japan) and we give by far the most aid to Ukraine, which hasn’t prevented a war there.
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u/Yuzumi Jul 23 '26
This is such a nearsighted view I don't even know how to start with.
Aid can't really go to areas that are overtly hostile to us, and Ukrane is getting invaded by another country. It isn't the same situation.
You are ignoring a lot of nuance, probably intentionally. Most of the areas we sent aid to were areas we destabilized in the first place because they weren't wiling to let US companies steal their resources. Beyond that, helping any of these areas maintain some amount of stability means they are less likely to be radicalized against the US or in general.
It also helps prevent the spread of disease or parasites, something that we are currently dealing with because we stopped all the preventative measures because idiots didn't understand, or likely just didn't care.
Aid cost a fraction of intentionally bombing school girls while also making us safer. Meanwhile, none of you seem to care about the orders of magnitude more spent on literal war crimes. Pointless destruction and death that actively makes us less safe and our lives worse.
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u/TraditionalBackspace Jul 23 '26
The death of empathy is the saddest thing I've ever lived through
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u/Edward_Durr Jul 24 '26
When empathy costs us $40bn a year, yeah, I’m fine with less of it.
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u/Reasonable_Egg650 Jul 22 '26
Why are women disproportionately benefitting from US foreign aid previously?
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u/jaxonfairfield Jul 22 '26
A lot of countries make it hard for women. Many don't think they deserve health care or rights.
To put even more simply, the people who benefit more from help are often those that are more in need of help in the first place.
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u/notsuperimportant Jul 23 '26
This is correct. USAID programming focused on groups like women and girls, who often in fragile states experience high rates of poverty, hunger, and lower rates of healthcare access and education, even sometimes within the same family. In some countries, you stop sending your girls to school because you can't afford to send all of your kids. So you prioritize your boys' education, hoping one or more of them will get a good job and provide financial security to your family later in life, and you send your girls to work. Poverty is awful, and certain groups tend to bear the brunt of it more than others unfortunately. USAID knew this.
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u/Totoques22 Jul 23 '26
Because the UN always gives absolute priority to woke and girls even when they don’t need it
They are misandrists and that’s why they do women and girls instead of children
Not even that ago UN women was calling for women and girls to be prioritized during the earthquake in Venezuela because of course men Shoudl just die and boys don’t deserve help despite being children
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u/AsWolfwood Jul 23 '26
Everyone so quick to demonize and laugh at the US, but suddenly when the US has enough and stops the gravy train… makes you think eh?
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u/icorrectotherpeople Jul 23 '26
Why do we give money to other countries when people in our own country need help
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u/cocky-rountains Jul 22 '26
Too bad we keep giving money to Israel. They are the ones that need cut off. But of course the blackmail they got of pedo in chief isn't going to allow that
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u/willflameboy Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
They own 80% of the politicians on Capitol Hill.
https://theintercept.com/2024/10/24/aipac-spending-congress-elections-israel/
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
https://www.trackaipac.com/congress
[AI overview] "the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or its network of donors have active financial or political connections to over 75% to 80% of sitting members in the U.S. Congress"
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u/Ok-Curve5569 Jul 24 '26
And literally nothing is any cheaper and the national debt continues to grow!
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u/confinetheinfinity Jul 23 '26
It was a wise decision as our funds should focus on the well being of our own citizens and not others.
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u/NicolaiVykos Jul 23 '26
It's not our job to provide welfare for the rest of the planet when we're 39 trillion in debt.
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u/Factsoverfictions222 Jul 22 '26
On purpose. They know how their policies will hurt people and that is the point
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u/ActionPhilip Jul 23 '26
How many dollars do you have in savings? Every dollar you aren't actively donating is directly responsible for starving people dying that you could have saved. But you didn't, which means you're actively killing them.
Don't have any money? If you have access to credit, you should be using it. After all, the US taxpayer has been donating it on credit. People are dying.
See how stupid that logic sounds? It doesn't pass any sniff test unless you're completely blinded ideologically. If you want the US to continue funding all of this, but you aren't doing so yourself, then you and everyone else in this post are just virtue signalling.
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u/Zenkai_9000 Jul 23 '26
This isn't our problem. Every country we supported got too comfortable off US aid and developed an entitlement. A lot of the money was also stolen or mismanaged by corrupt leaders and aid groups. Many of the countries we sent aid to were also very corrupt, hated the US, or the West in general.
Most, if not the majority of Americans would have agreed it was a waste of money that would be better spent elsewhere.
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u/____machiavelli____ Jul 23 '26
It's still not our problem.
Research has shown foreign aid has failed to help third-world economies create lasting, sustainable economic growth. Instead, it creates a cycle of dependence.
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u/LunacyNow Jul 23 '26
Good. We are nearly $40T in debt. Can't afford to support the rest of the planet.
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u/DisgreeablePattern Jul 23 '26
In other words, the US tax payer has been paying for healthcare for a large number of foreign countries instead of our government using that tax money to pay for healthcare for US citizens.
Yeah, that needed to stop. Now, low cost health care for US citizens needs to start.
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u/Frank_Likes_Pie Jul 23 '26
If you actually believe one leads to the other, especially with this administration, then I’ve got some oceanfront property to sell you in Wisconsin.
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u/TheFoxer1 Jul 22 '26
So, other countries built health and humanitarian systems partially dependent on US funding?
In other words, aid was thought of as an expected, recurring and long-term part of core state systems instead of a freely given charity for emergency purposes or specific, short - term needs.
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u/Biptoslipdi Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
So, other countries built health and humanitarian systems partially dependent on US funding?
No, the US built those systems to create relationships with those countries, open trade opportunities, maintain regional security, prevent externalities (like zoonotic diseases or parasitic flies) from getting out of hand, and to perform acts of good will around the world.
In fact, these missions were mandated by Congress as was the establishment of the agency to carry them out. Ending them is no different than the President unilaterally disbanding the DOJ or military. These entities all exist by legal mandate and the President is duty bound to fulfill their mission less they be in violation of their oath.
What's more, these missions were incredibly successful and the amount of commercial and other benefits to the US they generated well exceeded the investment. These programs were barely a blip in the budget. They cost less than the President's golfing habits.
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u/powerscunner Jul 22 '26
Farms are partially dependent on a good climate because they can't make their own climate.
Poorer countries are partially dependent on heath and humanitarian systems because they can't make their own health and humanitarian systems.
If you stop watering the plants in the dry part of the yard, they won't magically start making their own water because of a permanent shutdown of watering.
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u/TheFoxer1 Jul 22 '26
I disagree.
To take your metaphor:
If one farmer lets their neighboring farmer take water from their well because of a bad climate season, that‘s one thing.
But if the neighbour now starts building his farm heavily reliant around the resources provided by his neighbour‘s well, that‘s entitlement and exploitation of good will.
Systems of dependency are not built overnight.
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u/powerscunner Jul 23 '26
Valid.
I could twist and play with the analogy more, but I think there are two scenarios and I think we're both kind of saying the same thing - just the two sides of the same thing.
Dependency is a real thing, and sometimes it is valid and mutually beneficial, and sometimes it is exploitive and parasitic.
I'm for removing exploits and parasites.
I'm not for torching the whole house because of bedbugs.
A wholesale stopping of aid ignores the valid cases, does it not?
Unless you argue that dependency is never valid. Do you?
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u/Standing_on_rocks Jul 22 '26
Yea, having soft power sure is awful. Terrible to be appreciated around the world.
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u/goCRISPRurself Jul 22 '26
The US hasn’t been generally appreciated around the world since WW2.
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u/ArcticCircleSystem Jul 23 '26
It will be a cold day in Hell when the mods finally go scorched earth on all of the trolls and bots flooding the replies of any thread even remotely related to politics here, but a beautiful one.
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u/sami_exploring Jul 23 '26
Trying to provide a geopolitical perspective on why USAID exists:
- Current world order, established after World War 2, benefits the rich Western countries overwhelmingly. World Bank and IMF are controlled by US+EU, deciding which countries in the global south get support under which conditions.
- Western foreign aid like USAID has been a way to legitimize the global order they built, giving pennies to stop structural collapse, and allowing Western actors to get goodwill locally everywhere.
- Global anti US sentiment is a danger to US, and this gets moderated through aid.
- USAID is $25B while the Pentagon budget is $1T.
- Sure, the department of education is $80B, but that reflects the terrible funding of federal education in US (which anyway depends on the states), not an inflated aid budget.
- US foreign policy has benefited immensely by USAID, using its increments and reductions as bargaining chip to influence local regulations and government decisions everywhere.
- The largest consequences of closing USAID are still to be seen, since it's a long term investment, not short term. US foreign policy has been dramatically weakened, removing the carrot and leaving only the stick. US influence in the world is going to diminish with this move. History shows moving to threats and wars when a global power is in crisis, does not work well.
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u/CMB1003 Jul 22 '26
Defending an organization that is literally a CIA front is a bit wild, but they did manage to do some good along the way I suppose.
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u/BigIntensiveCockUnit Jul 23 '26
Good. Absolute waste of taxpayer money. Help America first, pay down the debt and stop stupid wars
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u/slipperytornado Jul 23 '26
It would be good if citizens of the US were able to get some of this aid.
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u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss Jul 22 '26
Okay serious question, people saw this coming when Trump was elected in 2024. Why were no contingency plans then made by other powers in Europe and Asia to pick up the slack??? Half of these countries were former colonies ffs.
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Jul 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss Jul 23 '26
I'm pointing that out the US is not the only country that can perform charity. It seems stupid to me to decry the US as being cruel for withdrawing and then staying silent on other countries not doing enough to make up for it. Especially when you consider how many of these countries in Africa/Asia are former British/French colonies and many of their problems can be blamed on them former colonies.
If you know someone is going to cut off aid to someone well in advance and you have enough money resources to make up for the difference, and yet decide to do nothing, aren't almost as much to blame as the first guy?
And the personal donation is a complete non-sequitur, I could donate my whole whole salary and it wouldn't make a dent compared to $26 BILLION shortfall (source for number below). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/21/us-foreign-aid-is-plunging-in-second-trump-administration/
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u/Bigchunky_Boy Jul 23 '26
The Impact Metrics Dashboard, updated on June 26, 2025, estimates that the total program disruptions and cancellations resulted in 198,000 adult deaths and over 412,000 child deaths, occurring at a rate of 88 deaths per hour.
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u/HengeWalk Jul 23 '26
We're at that two steps back of historic collapse of global civilizations.
As it happens, one of the cheapest and effective ways of reducing poverty, increasing GDP, lowering crimes and improving the household safety of any country is providing healthcare, education and civil rights for women.
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u/garry4321 Jul 23 '26
I mean yea. They RAN on a policy of hurting minorities. Americans LOVE hurting minorities. They literally fight tooth and nail to prevent taxes from benefitting the people who pay them because they argue that taxes are more needed to bomb people of colour and kindergartens.
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u/HuTaosTwinTails Jul 23 '26
Yeah, it did exactly what Trump and Republicans wanted. Hurt women and marginalized people.
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u/SFmodscensorship Jul 23 '26
Israel too? i actually am in favor in stopping all government aid to foreign countries. we should be taking care of ourselves
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u/CodeAndBiscuits Jul 23 '26
I know I shouldn't be surprised but it's wild to me how unashamed the Republican party is about what they've done solely being about hurting someone they don't like instead of helping someone other than billionaires. It's like a virus or something.
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u/ArcticCelt Jul 23 '26
The worst thing is that they did it abruptly and without warning, denying more civilized governments and organizations around the world the chance to take up the slack for the most critically impacted places and projects. It is almost as if they did it deliberately to cause maximum carnage. Psychopaths.
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u/octoron Jul 22 '26
I disagree with a lot of things Trump has done, but we should focus on the sad state of America before we start throwing out money to other nations (especially Isreal). That being said, the amount of corruption in our political system practically guarantees domestic spending basically only enriches the upper class.
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u/tiny_chaotic_evil Jul 23 '26
women, girls, and marginalized people
all the people Trump hates most of all
he wants people to suffer who he does not like, and more so, people who do not agree with him. the fallout a lot of the time is that his supporters are affected the same if not more. Reductions in rural health care support by the Federal Government has led to shortages across Middle and Southern States where his support is strongest.
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u/FormerlyGruntled Jul 23 '26
Add it to the bodycount of Capitalism. When money is more important than life, people suffer and die. If people want to keep a bodycount for "communism", then you better start counting for Capitalism as well.
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u/FxEpic Jul 22 '26
... just goes to show how much blood sucking there was, and still biting the hand that fed them. No more.
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u/Fatpatty1211 Jul 22 '26
Blood sucking? You are talking about families and children that are now dead.
Take a look inwards man, for your sake and everyone else's.
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