Making the ludicrous assertion that the United States Agency for International Development is run by a “bunch of radical lunatics,” President Donald Trump has attempted to end all funding for USAID. A judge has put a hold on the cuts temporarily.
The attacks on USAID are under the banner of “America First,” a slogan employed repeatedly by Trump in his inaugural address and in previous and subsequent remarks. This move represents a crass appeal to vulgar protectionist attitudes.
“America First” has an ugly history, going back to the 1930s and 1940s when the America First Party operated under the leadership of Nazi sympathizers Gerald A.K. Smith and Father Charles Coughlin and right-wing “populist” politician Huey Long of Louisiana. A second America First Party was founded in 2002 by supporters of ultrarightist Pat Buchanan.
But in 2025, what Trump really means is “billionaires first.”
Ironically, the so-called “radical lunatics” at USAID have distributed funds to the Cold Warriors who operate the “National Endowment for Democracy,” which exists to undermine socialism and anti-imperialism around the world. The misnamed “Food for Peace” programs are notorious for using food as a weapon to get impoverished countries to make concessions to U.S. imperialism.
Federal workers protest job cuts, Feb. 5, 2025, Washington, D.C.
Needless to say, some elements of the ruling class are up in arms about the abrupt elimination of USAID. They fear that this removes a weapon from U.S. imperialism’s arsenal.
Abolishing USAID would also mean an end to programs that have saved lives, including food aid, AIDS/HIV prevention, disaster relief, bed nets that offer protection from malaria and demining programs in Vietnam — where unexploded ordnance continues to kill people 50 years after the Vietnam War’s end.
A reported 13,000 workers worldwide will be out of a job. When the federal judge ruled against the USAID cuts it was after a union representing government workers filed a lawsuit.
Under the guise of “keeping the money here,” Trump has taken aim at Earth’s poorest populations. He is essentially giving himself dictatorial powers, with the ability to terminate all kinds of programs he and his sidekick, centibillionaire Elon Musk, deem wasteful. This is a billionaires’ coup in the making. Workers and oppressed people need to mount a fightback.
That doesn’t mean socialists and progressives should clamor for these programs to be restored. The truth is that U.S. imperialism has ruthlessly exploited the people and resources of the Global South for decades and in some cases for centuries. The ruling class owes trillions of dollars in reparations for its crimes against humanity.
It’s time to pay up! Reparations now!
That’s a righteous demand in response to the right-wing attack on aid to oppressed countries.