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 The administration cut portions of PEPFAR funding which provided lifesaving treatment for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, orphans, and vulnerable children. Reports linked the cuts to disruptions in care and child deaths.

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 joked online about feeding USAID “into the wood chipper.”

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 celebrated outside the shuttered USAID headquarters.

2025 March

2025-03-29 House Republicans posted an AI-generated celebration video mocking USAID’s collapse. In December 2025 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.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/09/john-oliver-trump-usaid

2025 July

2025-07-14 The Trump administration allowed USAID food stocks for starving children to expire and be incinerated. 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 reported on Ugandan nurse Agnes Nambozo, who climbed a 1,000-foot ladder daily to provide vaccines and medical care. Following USAID cuts, she also assumed duties previously handled by other aid workers.

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

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 that more than 2,000 health clinics worldwide had closed after USAID reductions. Other reports linked the cuts to preventable child deaths from malnutrition and illness.

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

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