Tag
The United States Agency for International Development — the primary U.S. foreign aid agency. Incidents involve the dismantlement of USAID, termination of humanitarian programs, and the humanitarian consequences of aid cutoffs.
4 incidents
The Trump administration reversed decades of bipartisan progress toward eliminating antipersonnel landmines by authorizing their global use and simultaneously dismantling the US humanitarian demining program that had been the world's largest mine-clearing effort.
The administration froze PEPFAR on Day One, cutting antiretroviral therapy for an estimated 20 million HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa. PEPFAR funded 70% of the global HIV response. Health workers reported clinics closing, drug supplies running out, and patients dying within weeks of the freeze. Even after partial restoration, the damage to supply chains, staffing, and preventive programs is projected to cause hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.
DOGE operated as an unaccountable parallel executive structure. Musk's associates accessed federal payment systems, personnel databases, Social Security administration data, IRS systems, and classified networks. Congress had not authorized DOGE to exist, to fire employees, or to redirect agency funds. Courts issued numerous injunctions against DOGE actions. Multiple agencies had their websites taken offline, their career employees locked out, and their operations functionally suspended within weeks of inauguration. USAID was effectively eliminated — folded into the State Department without Congressional action — ending decades of foreign assistance infrastructure. Federal workers who objected or filed suit faced retaliation.
Systematic destruction of the US Agency for International Development resulted in termination of lifesaving programs across the developing world, with The Lancet projecting 9.4 million additional preventable deaths by 2030.