Should Trump Create A New USAID From Scratch To Counter China?

Or should it simply be forgotten? The Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or roll it into the State Dept. And he is mostly justified in doing so.

The agency, like many others in the federal government, is bloated and ideologically driven, often spending billions on partisan pet projects. I agree that it needs to go.

But should something better, that truly promotes real American interests worldwide, be created in its place?

President Trump has been critical of any overseas spending, saying USAID has been wasting billions and needs to align with his policy priorities. And he is right.

Trump has said that USAID has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” adding: “We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision.”

USAID is the world’s largest single aid donor. It disbursed $72 billion in fiscal year 2023. It is supposed to be dedicated to extending assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms, per the U.S. government.

In the big picture, the USAID budget is fairly small.

Apart from spending on Ukraine, the majority of USAID is given to sub-Saharan Africa in the form of humanitarian assistance, food aid and health programs.

Some of this helps keep countries friendly to the United States, a valuable goal especially as communist China aggressively tries to win them over to its side in its race to replace the US as global leader.

As Politico reported:

China is quickly making moves to fill in gaps left behind by the Trump administration’s abrupt moves to almost entirely halt and wind down USAID operations worldwide, from the Indo-Pacific to South America.

In Nepal, Chinese officials have reportedly signaled to the Nepalese government that Beijing is willing to step in to replace USAID’s void with development funding of its own, the Annapurna Express reports. Officials in the Cook Islands, a strategically important island chain in the Indo-Pacific, said they expect the withdrawal of USAID from the region to provide an opening for China. In Colombia, which received around $385 million in USAID funding in 2024, non-governmental organizations that received USAID funding say the Chinese government is interested in putting up money to help fill the void.

These are early signs, but taken together, it has some analysts on both sides of the political spectrum warning that USAID’s dismantlement will undercut U.S. global competition with China in the long-run.

This is something that Trump must keep in mind as we consider what to do without USAID.

But it also funds a lot of woke crap, helps destabilize governments and societies and makes countries dependent on aid. The Biden administration openly used USAID “to leverage policy changes” around the world, Fox News reported.

This included forcing radical LGBT and other far-left agendas and even atheism on friends and foes alike.

Worse still, it provided millions of dollars in funding to extremist groups tied to designated terrorist organizations and their allies, according to a report published by Middle East Forum, a U.S. think tank.

The report added:

Billions more of federal dollars have been given to leading American aid charities which have consistently failed to vet their terror-tied local partners, and show little interest in improving their practices, to the apparent indifference of the federal government.

The head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, says USAID is “beyond repair.”

“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms,” Musk posted on X

However, among a lot of valid criticisms, Musk has been promoting some false in a bid to discredit the agency, including that Hollywood actors were paid by USAID to visit Ukraine, and that $50 billion of condoms were to be supplied to Gaza, six times the amount for the entire world in 2023.

Sadly, our MAGA side, much like the left, too often gets duped by our own propaganda.

USAID was established under John F. Kennedy’s Administration by Congressional Statute, meaning attempts by Trump to dismantle it will face legal hurdles, although with both the Senate and House of Representatives in GOP hands, he may be able to get Congress to follow through.

As of this writing, all direct-hire personnel have been placed on administrative leave “with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.

The stated plan is to retain only 297 staff out of around 10,000 globally. Basically, just a skeleton crew, if that.

USAID is definitely being eviscerated. And for good reasons.

The question now is, should it be rebuilt or replaced with something much better to counter China and truly promote U.S. interests? Or will Trump simply cede the field?

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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