The Dismantling of USAID and NED

Who would have thought that in less than two weeks of Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States, he would ensure the opening of a can of worms when it comes to agencies like the USAID and NED—long considered arms of the deep state?

- JOYEETA BASU

USAID, established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, had a clear-cut mandate—to deliver civilian foreign aid and development assistance to the world. It is a different matter that it has been accused of using its work as a cover to interfere in the matters of sovereign countries and conduct regime change operations. This has been a long-standing accusation. But now it is becoming public that even domestically USAID's deeds read like that of a history-sheeter's—full of corruption, including graft, unethical practices and even funding bioweapons research. In fact, Elon Musk, who is in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and is fulfilling Trump's order of downsizing government, has called USAID a "criminal organization" and asserted that "it's time for it to die." He said this after two USAID officers refused to share some top-secret files with DOGE. Ever since, USAID's website has gone "bad" and its social media handles have disappeared. It's as good as dead, while wild tales of its misdeeds are flooding cyberspace. Confirmation of USAID being shut down came from Elon Musk on Monday, who said that Trump has agreed to shut USAID down: "You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair. We're shutting it down."