The True Cost of USAID Cuts

美国国际开发署削减的真实代价

What A Day

新闻

2025-02-21

19 分钟
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Thursday marked one month since President Donald Trump officially took office. Since then, he’s signed dozens of executive orders. And the fallout from all his unilateral actions is starting to become clear. The administration’s funding cuts for foreign assistance have already hit millions of people receiving aid around the world through USAID, as well as many American businesses and nonprofits who do business with the agency. Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin, who resigned in protest as deputy head of communications in East Africa for USAID this month, describes the toll Trump’s cuts are taking on vulnerable people in Kenya. And in headlines: The Senate confirmed Kash Patel as the new head of the FBI, former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced he won’t run for re-election, and the administration slashes deportation protections for around 500,000 Haitian migrants.
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  • It's Friday, February 21st.

  • I'm Jane Coaston, and this is what a day.

  • The show that did not get invited to celebrate Black History Month at the White House and is actually pretty okay with that.

  • On today's show, Senate Republicans narrowly confirm Cash Patel as the new FBI director.

  • And Mitch McConnell says his time in Congress is coming to an end.

  • But first Thursday marked one month since President Donald Trump officially took office.

  • Since then, he's signed dozens and dozens and dozens of executive orders.

  • White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt was practically giddy during her press briefing.

  • This administration is off to a historic start.

  • The president has already signed 73 executive orders.

  • That is more than double the number signed by Joe Biden and more than quadruple the number signed by Barack Obama over the same period.

  • That's not how any of this is supposed to work.

  • And if I recall, Republicans said as much when Obama and Biden signed a lot of their orders.

  • But Republicans don't seem to care now, and neither does Trump.

  • And the fallout from all these unilateral moves is starting to become clear.

  • Case in point.

  • On Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order freezing virtually all foreign assistance from the US for 90 days.

  • One of the organizations hit hardest was the US Agency for International Development, or USAID.

  • On Wednesday, USAID contractors asked a judge to hold Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the agency's current leader, Peter Maracco, in contempt of court.

  • They argued the two men are violating the judge's order last week to lift the spending freeze.