USAID: it's a political purge
Arguing the merits won't help save your job
I think many of my colleagues are confused about what is going on with USAID. The Trump regime has stopped all foreign assistance, decapitated the leadership of USAID, executed mass firings, put almost all staff on hold. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issues a nominal waiver for emergency operations, which is just a fig leaf. It’s not working, and the staff who could implement it are on administrative leave.
The Trump regime has put out some nominal excuses for why they are doing this. They claim they will do a review of program to ensure compliance with Administration priorities. But, they could have done this without mass firings and completely disabling the agency.
The real reason is they are conducting a political purge of USAID. It’s illegal and immoral. And they usually try to hide it. But, sometimes, they can’t help themselves so they brag about it on TV. On January 28, Trump henchman Stephen Miller appeared on CNN and had a contentious interview. He said this:
MILLER: Well, I'll give you a great example. We looked at USAID as an example.
TAPPER: That's --
MILLER: Ninety-eight percent, 98 percent of the workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left wing candidate, just as an example.
TAPPER: Okay.
MILER: But let me just -- let me just --
TAPPER: You're demonizing an entire workforce as having a --
That’s weird. First of all, it’s certainly not true that 98% of USAID staff donated to Harris or other “left-wing” candidate. But why would Miller even say this? Why would he have this talking point? Most likely, he’s mangling statistics from Heritage Foundation (see below).
Then today, an anonymous Rubio “ally” said, "Bring USAID to heel and you end the Democrat gravy train", arguing that the agency is a liberal-aligned patronage system that helps Democrats revolve in and out of government and non-governmental organizations. Source.
More lies. USAID staff may lean liberal, but they are not very political and hardly a revolving door for Democratic activists. They’re mostly pretty de-politicized professionals, do-gooders, hard workers, patriots.
The kind of analysis these Trump regime henchmen are using follows from the Heritage Foundation, which has been pursuing a theory of bias and politicization in the development sector for a while. In 2023, Heritage put out a series of papers to make a case that USAID is politically biased. They examined FEC data and found USAID staff tend to donate to Democrats more than Republicans. But only about 1000 staff made donations, less than 1 in 10 USAID staff. Source.
In 2023, Heritage described AIDS as a “lifestyle disease” and argued that PEPFAR was “a patronage program for clients of the Democratic Party.” Heritage analyzed the political giving of USAID and key contractors and concluded that it’s a left-wing plot. Source.
Heritage also analyzed the political contributions of Interaction, a non-profit association of development organizations, and found they were heavily weighted to Democrats. For Heritage, this justifies cutting off funding for Interaction. Source.
The author of those papers, Tim Meisburger, is now the head of USAID humanitarian operations, according to his LinkedIn. He’s an election denier and conspiracy theorist.
Another Trump henchman seems to be playing a big role, Pete Marocco. He’s at the State Department with oversight over USAID and seems to be the source of the aid freeze and stop-work. In the first Trump Administration he bounced around between State Department, USAID, and Defense Department leaving a mess everywhere he landed. No one seems to want him because he’s incompetent and mean-spirited. He was so bad, there was a staff uprising. They wrote a formal complaint: “Taxpayer dollars are being wasted through hundreds of USG staff hours squandered on unproductive or duplicative tasks, midstream activity cancellations, ill-advised program pivots, interventions in the PSC contracting process, and in the potential legal liabilities created by the AtA’s actions.” His behavior now is consistent with this feckless leadership, micro-managing incompetence, and suspicion and hostility to staff.
Currently, there’s a putative 90 day review, although there’s no evidence or information about who will do the review or how it will be conducted, what the review criteria are, or what decisions will be taken at the end of the review. It’s vague and incompetent mess. As likely, Trump henchmen are drawing up lists of purge targets based on reviewing social media and campaign donations. The Trump regime imagines they will damage the Democrats with this purge. Or, at a minimum, they can be pointlessly cruel to some liberals. Of course, leading Democrats don’t seem to care. In the meantime, the Trump regime lies and invents mini-scandals and fraud to feed their misinformation machine and justify their actions.
Hiring, or firing, government staff based on their political views or party affiliation is illegal and unethical. But, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening here.
The effects of the stop-work and funding freeze are trickling back to Washington now. Teachers unpaid, clinics stocked-out of medicines, malaria prevention ended, food stocks sitting in warehouses rather than feeding starving people. There will be a many, many dead people as a result. But, the Trump regime has decided a political purge is more important than saving lives.
ENDS//