Because what we really need is more bureaucratic red tape, it seems like the Trump administration has decided to really put the screws to USAID, an organization that’s supposed to be helping people in need, not playing politics (or check out this Amazon search for some interesting perspectives). And, of course, because this is the Trump administration we’re talking about, they’ve managed to completely botch the funding process, leaving USAID employees and partner groups struggling to access government funds that have been halted (more on that here, in case you want to know more).
But wait, it gets better (or worse, depending on how you look at it): it seems like Musk has been making claims about restarting disease-prevention funding, which remains frozen, because why would we want to actually prevent diseases when we can just tweet about it (I mean, seriously, what’s next? Musk’s Twitter rant book?). And to make matters even more absurd, there’s a directive ordering USAID employees to keep quiet about the whole thing, because of course the Trump administration doesn’t want the truth to get out (as Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior USAID official, so aptly put it, “This is basically telling USAID personnel not to tell the truth…”).
And, let’s be real here, this memo is just a thinly veiled attempt to silence anyone who might actually care about the consequences of Trump’s actions (I mean, who needs facts when you’ve got propaganda, right? Check out the BBC’s take on the situation). But, as it turns out, these USAID leaks are actually exposing the horrors of the Trump-Musk efforts to cripple the agency, and that’s just too bad for them (did someone say catch-22?). But, I mean, what’s not to love about a good game of politics vs. humanity?