Trump administration details final plan to dissolve USAID

After months of targeted attacks on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – including firing over 10,000 employees and the termination of $60 billion worth of humanitarian aid contracts – the Trump administration detailed its plans to finalize the State Department’s takeover of the historically independent agency. Ultimately, USAID will be eliminated in all but name with its staff reduced to 15 positions and its operations largely wound down or transferred elsewhere within the State Department. Efforts to dissolve USAID have been led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, who previously celebrated “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” In reality, Musk’s efforts effectively ended global family planning, HIV prevention and treatment, and maternal health programs. According to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, if no contraceptive care is provided by USAID over a period of just 90 days, this will lead to about 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and over 8,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth complications.