[WaPo] Trump moves to wrest control of USAID as Musk says, ‘We’re shutting it down’

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/usaid-d...rtment-foreign-aid-8d2a1920?mod=hp_opin_pos_0

Hurricane Musk and the USAID Panic
Elon gets a flavor of the pushback his DOGE project will get.
By The Editorial Board
Feb. 4, 2025 at 5:52 pm ET

Hurricane Elon is blowing through Washington, creating panic and pushback wherever he and his government-efficiency minions appear. Mr. Musk sometimes blows hot air, and he needs to be watched to stay within legal guardrails. But he’s also hitting targets that have long deserved scrutiny and reform, which helps explain the wailing over the U.S. Agency for International Development.

USAID—not a household acronym—provides money to various countries and non-governmental organizations. The agency sends money to around 130 countries, including Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria, according to the Congressional Research Service. In 2023 the agency managed more than $40 billion and no fewer than 10,000 employees. The ostensible goal is to make friends and influence countries in the American interest.

No doubt spending $40 billion is bound to do some good somewhere. One oft-cited example is the Pepfar program that has funded anti-AIDS efforts in Africa in particular. But USAID, like most foreign aid, has become something of a plaster saint in Washington even if it does far less good than advertised.

Thus Mr. Musk brought down the wrath of the Beltway by targeting AID as part of his Department of Government Efficiency. His method taken from the private sector is to move fast even if he breaks things—and fix them later. When USAID officials leaked their dismay to the press, Mr. Musk tweeted that the place is a “viper’s nest” and the solution is “to basically get rid of the whole thing.”

President Trump piled on with his typically restrained observation that “I love the concept but they turned out to be radical left lunatics.” Cue the political panic.

USAID is hardly full of Mother Teresas who only want to do good without a political agenda. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast cites examples of USAID’s progressive agenda at work.

The agency in the Biden years supported electric vehicles in Vietnam and a “transgender clinic” in India. A Serbian LGBTQ group called ‘Grupa Izadji,’ received $1.5 million to ‘advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.” There are many other examples.

These grants are dumb and wasteful, but some USAID spending may undermine U.S. interests. An analysis by the Middle East Forum says $164 million of USAID money has supported radical organizations around the world, and $122 million of that aid was going to groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations.

According to the report, USAID has given millions of dollars to “organizations directly in Gaza controlled by Hamas” and that recipients of the money have “called for their lands to be ‘cleansed’ from the ‘impurity of the Jews.’” The Middle East Forum notes that money also often flows to anti-American groups through intermediary recipients that fail to vet local partners.

This sounds like an agency that needs a house-cleaning and maybe a reduction in what it does so it can focus on the most important. That’s what Secretary of State Marco Rubio now says he plans to do, rather than shutting the agency down as Mr. Musk claimed he wants to do. Mr. Musk can’t shut it down in any case. Congress established it as an independent agency in 1998, under the supervision of State, and so it would require an act of Congress to close it down. That isn’t about to get 60 votes in the Senate.

The USAID uproar is a taste of the pushback that Messrs. Musk and Trump are going to face as they work to shrink and reform the executive branch. What Ronald Reagan called the “iron triangle” of interest groups, Congress and the news media isn’t going to give up power or money without a fight. You can add career regulators to that triangle.

That’s all the more reason for the DOGErs to have a plan that works within the law and builds political support. The lawsuits are already flying, and courts will derail Mr. Musk’s project before it even gets off the ground if he isn’t careful.

More oversight and transparency for a leaner USAID makes sense, and we wouldn’t mind if it vanished. But that takes more sustained political effort than a howling wind of tweets in the middle of the night.

Appeared in the February 5, 2025, print edition as 'Hurricane Musk and the USAID Panic'.




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Struggling Democrats Find a ‘Good Villain’ in DOGE Lord Elon Musk
Activists wave signs saying ‘Nobody Elected Elon,’ as the party focuses outrage at Trump’s billionaire ally

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...3?st=9EqqvJ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

excerpt:

WASHINGTON—Democrats are focusing their fire on billionaire Elon Musk—not President Trump—as they push back against the administration’s lightning-fast moves to dismantle parts of the government and dig into sensitive federal data.

“In the building behind me, Elon Musk is seizing power from the American people. We are here to fight back,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), at a large rally Tuesday at the Treasury Department headquarters. Musk “wants the power to decide whether or not every road repair in America goes forward, whether or not every Head Start center in America opens and whether or not every military base anywhere in the world operates according to Elon,” she said.

Activists, who have grumbled about party leadership and been urging a more muscular response, waved signs that read “Nobody Elected Elon,” a show of enthusiasm that has been in short supply since November.

Democrats are trying to paint Musk as the man pulling the levers in Washington—not Trump or the voters who elected him. After struggling to land on a clear message in the months following their November defeat, Democrats are lambasting Musk’s efforts to take control over swaths of the federal government as part of his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency.

“He’s a good villain,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D., Va.) “He makes it so easy because he’s so disregarding of how people feel. You know there’s no empathy, there’s no sense of trying to help people.”

Rep. Jared Golden, a centrist Democrat from Maine who represents a district that voted for Trump, said his office has been inundated by calls in recent days about Musk, not the president. “My constituents, and a majority of this country, put Trump in the White House, not this unelected, weirdo billionaire,” he tweeted.

Democratic efforts to demonize Musk came after a successful effort by Musk’s representatives to get direct access to a Treasury Department payment system that distributes trillions of dollars to Americans each year. Individuals working for DOGE also effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, and there have been discussions about an executive order to close the Education Department.

Trump backed Musk on Tuesday, telling reporters: “Look, he’s done a great job. Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this. USAID. It’s a disaster.”

Republican lawmakers have largely supported the DOGE efforts and said Democrats were on the back foot.

“Is it just me, or are Democrats not ready for our side winning so much?” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) on X.
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