USAID

1961

1961-09-01 USAID was created by John F. Kennedy with bipartisan support for humanitarian reasons and has since then saved hundreds-of-thousands of lives, provided miraculous aid, and has bonded the United States to other countries by making a wonderful impression.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/pl-480

2025 January

2025-01-20 The Trump administration froze funds to USAID. By March USAID was 83% gutted. By July 24, 2025 Trump signed the Rescissions Act of 2025 to claw back $8B in funding from USAID. Aside from foreign aid, dismantling USAID can negatively impact farm subsidies.

2025-01-24 PEPFAR was designed to implement life-saving HIV treatment services for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and orphans. The Trump administration cut funding for treatment to pregnant and breastfeeding women, orphans and vulnerable children. GOP members like Senator Kennedy were upset because some of the lifesaving care went to homosexuals, transgenders, and intersex patients, calling it “sick-bucket stuff”. After cuts were made, patients who normally received care for free no longer could reach care, and orphans like 14-year-old Mande Andrew died because of them.

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths/

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2026-03-09/a-year-after-usaid-cuts-local-groups-say-impact-on-humanitarian-work-has-been-devastating

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/the-human-cost-one-year-after-the-us-took-a-chainsaw-to-global-health/#:~:text=Death%20tracker,$1trillion%20by%20last%20October.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html

2025 February

2025-02-03 Trump stated that USAID was “run by radical left lunatics” and claimed, “tremendous fraud”.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/at-usaid-waste-and-abuse-runs-deep/#:~:text=Abuse%20Runs%20Deep-,The%20White%20House,next%2Dto%2Dno%20oversight.

2025-02-03 Elon Musk posted on social media, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.” He was responding to a post by Mike Benz, “it ain’t dead yet, but already, and for the very first time, a hole has been put in the Terror Titanic x.com/Nero/status/18…”

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886307316804263979

2025-02-06 Trump alleged on Truth Social that “billions of dollars have been stolen at USAID”.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46239/why-is-the-trump-administration-targeting-usaid#:~:text=Partisan%20politics%20is%20playing%20a,protect%20and%20defend%20the%20Constitution.%22

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1887543203953275347

2025-02-11 During Oval Office remarks, Trump alleged “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse”.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/09/john-oliver-trump-usaid#:~:text=On%20the%20latest%20Last,any%20of%20those%20thoughts%20true.%E2%80%9D

2025-02-18 Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson took a trip to DC to celebrate and take a selfie in front of the shut-down USAID headquarters.

2025 March

2025-03-29 House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority posted an AI video celebrating the collapse of USAID, featuring JD Vance, Elon Musk, Trump, and someone’s dog carrying a coffin and dancing.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/09/john-oliver-trump-usaid

2025 July

2025-07-14 Members who were left in USAID reached out to the Trump administration to ask for release of food stocks intended to feed 30,000+ starving children. The administration ignored the requests for weeks, allowed the food stock to expire, then announced it would incinerate the food. It was roughly 500 metric tons of food they allowed to spoil then incinerated, rather than feed hungry children.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/07/usaid-emergency-food-incinerate-trump/683532/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/16/usaid-food-for-nearly-30000-hungry-kids-to-be-destroyed-official

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-aid-workers-lobbied-weeks-save-food-stocks-destruction-after-trump-cuts-2025-07-16/

2025 October

2025-10-25 PBS covered a story about how nurse Agnes Nambozo scales a 1000-foot ladder to work every day to reach the children in a remote part of Uganda to administer vaccines and life-saving care, and now that USAID has been dismantled she must also cover the work of several other people who, because of the Trump administration, are no longer available to provide aid.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meet-the-nurse-in-uganda-who-climbs-a-1000-foot-ladder-to-save-lives

https://www.medangel.org/1000-foot-ladders-in-uganda/#:~:text=Agnes%20Nambozo%2C%20a%20Ugandan%20nurse,approximately%2050%20patients%20per%20visit.

https://nurse.org/news/uganda-nurse-climbs-ladders-to-save-lives/

2025 December

2025-12-17 After the Trump administration shut down USAID, reporters found that in Kenya where they relied on USAID mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed and pregnant women were so desperate for food they were eating mud.

https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths/

2026 January

2026-01-21 In a study, Trump’s decision to block USAID resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition.

https://sherman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/one-year-after-trumps-usaid-shutdown-sherman-meeks-lead-all-foreign

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/chikungunya/quick-takes-death-toll-usaid-cuts-withdrawal-chikungunya-vaccine-funding-updated-ebola

https://www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?view=table&sort=title&order=asc

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2jjpm7zv8o

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01186-9/fulltext

2026 February

2026-02-08 The New York Times reported “more than 2000 health clinics have closed in crisis zones around the world”. See article “What We Lost When We Lost U.S.A.I.D.”. France-24 reported that in just one district 29 children died in just a month’s time from malnutrition and illness; deaths which would have been avoided if funding had been maintained according to one of the coordinators of Action Against Hunger in Ituri.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opinion/usaid-humanitarian-aid-america.html

https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/location/africa/democratic-republic-congo/