Thread by @Laurie_Garrett

On Friday, when most of America wasn't paying attention, heading out for the holidays, Trump signed an Exec Order transferring ALL control over foreign aid from State to OMB.
This will destroy American overseas programs. Here's why (MORE)whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

2/US programs for everything from #famine relief & #HIV care to safe pregnancy efforts & building electricity grids have won America friends in the world & saved 100s of millions of lives. They were nested in the State Dept so our diplomats on the ground can oversee them.
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3/ By moving foreign aid out of State & into OMB, programs for saving starving children, rescuing families from catastrophes, teaching kids to read, stopping epidemics -- ALL of that now falls under the control of Russell Vought.
Who is Vought?
MOREtrumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/people/russell…

4/Vought is a self-described Christian Nationalist who headed up the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. He is out to destroy & fire people.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…
“When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.”
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5/Project 2025 isn't "conservative" about foreign aid, development & global health programs -- no, it is militantly opposed, claiming ALL such programs push climate change, gender and vaccine "propaganda" and line the corrupt pockets of NGOs.
cgdev.org/blog/project-2…

5/Among the programs targeted for complete elimination are those that bring water to rural poor, for farming, cooking, washing. Vought is against them. reuters.com/world/us/trump…

6/White House honcho Stephen Miller: "We looked at #USAID as an example...98% of the workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left wing candidate."
Firing PEPFAR & USAID workers purges "left-wingers" out of government, Vought & Miller insist.
MOREwbur.org/onpoint/2025/0…

7/Cutting foreign aid has never been about saving $$ -- the entire 2024 aid budget, including HIV, PEPFAR, global health, famine relief -- was less than 1% of the U.S. budget.
Moreover, the top NGO recipients are Christian.
MOREkff.org/global-health-…

8/Catholic Relief Services tops the list, receiving (until now) $4.6 billion. Save the Children garners $1.5B; WorldVision $1.2B; Mercy Corps $1.1B. In February Trump called the govt USAID workers and these NGOs, “a bunch of radical lunatics.”

MORE forbes.com/sites/saradorn…

9/Mission statement, Catholic Relief Services
"PROMOTE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT by responding to major emergencies, fighting disease & poverty, & nurturing peaceful & just societies; SERVE CATHOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES as they live their faith in solidarity with their brothers & sisters around the world."

MOREcrs.org/about-us/missi…

10/Mission statement:
"World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor & oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, & bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God."
.worldvision.org/about-us/missi…

11/Mercy Corps:
"Our mission: to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities."


MOREmercycorps.org/who-we-are

12/Mission
“Save the Children is often told that its aims are impossible – that there has always been child suffering & there always will be. We know it’s impossible only if we make it so. It’s impossible only if we refuse to attempt it.
Through the decades, Save the Children has continued to work to save children’s lives, and that’s still what we do today."
savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do

13/There is a great deal of confusion right now for global health, humanitarian responses, food aid, development and other overseas efforts:
How much money remains?
Can Trump rescind Congressionally-approved funds?
But one thing is clear: This man seeks aid annihilation.
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14/ Chapter 9 of the Project2025 manifesto focuses on USAID and foreign aid. It was edited by Vought. Here are some key quotes:
"The aid industry claims that climate change causes poverty, which is false...USAID’s response to man-made food insecurity is to provide more billions of dollars in aid—a recipe that will keep scores of poor countries underdeveloped and dependent on foreign aid for years to come."
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15/"Instead of protecting women’s and children’s unalienable human rights and propelling their ability to thrive in society, past Democrat Administrations have nearly erased what females are and what femininity is through 'gender' policies and practices."
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16/"should remove all references, examples, definitions, photos, and language...that include the following terms: 'gender,' 'gender equality,' 'gender equity,' 'gender diverse individuals,' 'gender aware,' 'gender sensitive,' etc. It should also remove references to 'abortion,' 'reproductive health,' and 'sexual and reproductive rights' and controversial sexual education materials."
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17/"In effect, humanitarian aid is sustaining war economies, creating financial incentives for warring parties to continue fighting, discouraging governments from reforming, and propping up malign regimes."
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18/"A deeply embedded culture within the foreign aid bureaucracy views public recognition of U.S. assistance as secondary to a larger philanthropic mission and is embarrassed by the American flag. Citing vaguely defined security concerns, USAID’s implementers—U.N. agencies, international NGOs, and contractors—often fail to credit the American people for the billions of dollars in assistance they provide the rest of the world even as they engage in self-promoting public relations to raise other donor funds."

19/"Foreign aid must advance the Abraham Accords. Increased trade and investment between Israel and its Arab neighbors represent the most effective path toward reducing poverty, fostering the emergence of a middle class, and solidifying peace."

20/In Africa, "the agency’s efforts to reduce poverty and hunger have failed as it spends ever-higher amounts of aid partnering with a costly and ineffective aid industrial complex that has little interest in 'working itself out of a job'.”

21/In the Americas, "years of foreign aid have failed to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the hemisphere. Poverty, joblessness, and social unrest have led to leftist electoral victories from Mexico to Chile. These regimes are hostile to American interests and private enterprise, breed corruption, implement radical policies that will further impoverish their people..."