Tag Archives: U.S. Agency for International Development

USA Today: A letter to sad Elon Musk, from America: ‘Hey pal, sorry everybody was mean.’ | Opinion

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Hey, we get it. It’s not nice when other people try to take the government you tried to ruin and find a different way to ruin it.

A heartfelt letter to Tesla CEO and chief-DOGE-chainsaw-wielder Elon Musk, from America.

Dear Elon:

Hey, buddy. We hear you’re going through a bit of a rough patch lately. Your electric-car brand and overall reputation are in the toilet, people are saying not-nice things about you, and the whole “King of the Department of Government Efficiency” thing didn’t work out the way you wanted. We hear you basically gave up, took your exploding rocket and went home after deciding to leave Trump’s administration. (Oh, we forgot to mention that your rockets keep exploding. When it rains, it pours, right?)

Listen, we get it. There are a lot of emotions involved when a person realizes that bad behavior can have consequences. Just imagine how your best bud, Donald Trump, is going to feel if that should ever happen to him? We’re kidding. That’s never going to happen. But it is happening for you, pal, and we’re sorry nobody likes you. But we ‒ the good people of America ‒ want to help you learn from this experience.

The other day, you told The Washington Post that just because you barnstormed into the federal government as head of DOGE and started firing random people and upending years of foreign diplomacy and scientific research while proudly waving around a chainsaw, you were criticized for doing those very dumb things.

“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,”  ….

Clink the links below to read the rest:

A letter to sad Elon Musk, from America: ‘Hey pal, sorry everybody was mean.’ | Opinion
Dear Elon: Hey, buddy. We hear you’re going through a bit of a rough patch lately.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/29/elon-musk-tesla-doge-beautiful-bill-leaving-trump/83907213007

Rolling Stone: Rubio Says Blocking Deportations to South Sudan Will Harm Humanitarian Aid

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As Trump guts foreign aid, his secretary of state warns a judge that blocking migrant deportations to South Sudan will harm “humanitarian efforts”

A judge ruled this week that Donald Trump’s administration violated his order barring officials from deporting people to third countries by attempting to send a group of Asian immigrants to South Sudan – and directed them to maintain custody of the immigrants at a U.S. military base.

On Friday night, Trump’s Justice Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a wild new argument as they demanded Judge Brian Murphy either reconsider or pause his orders so they can appeal them. The Trump officials argued that blocking the president’s attempt to deport immigrants to war-torn South Sudan will harm efforts to distribute humanitarian aid in the region. 

That’s got to be one of their stupidest, wackiest rationales yet.

Especially considering that:

It’s a rich argument, considering that the Trump administration has gutted the government’s humanitarian efforts, starting with the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The scraps of USAID, America’s foreign aid bureau, have been folded into Rubio’s State Department.

Last month, the nonprofit aid group Save the Children reported that it had closed seven free health facilities in South Sudan as a result of foreign aid cuts. The organization told The Washington Post that the Trump administration had terminated about $13 million in funding for South Sudan. The money had come from the State Department and U.S.-funded United Nations programs.

According to Save the Children, five children with cholera and three adults died last month as they attempted to travel three hours – in 104-degree weather and with “no access to clean water, shade, or medicines” – to the organization’s nearest health facility after the aid cuts forced closures.

Illegal immigrants being deported are not your foreign policy tools to be toyed with as you please.

Rubio Says Blocking Deportations to South Sudan Will Harm Humanitarian Aid
In a court filing, Trump’s secretary of state claimed blocking migrant deportations to South Sudan will harm efforts to distribute humanitarian aid.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rubio-south-sudan-deportations-humanitarian-aid-1235347674

USA Today: ‘We have to try lifting ourselves’: USAID workers fired months ago are still scrambling for jobs

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They were among the first of the federal employees to lose their jobs, and months later, laid off workers for the U.S. Agency for International Development are still struggling to regain their footing.

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Roughly 95% said they had lost savings and retirement funds, 60% lost access to health care, and 37% have already lost their housing. Many said they will have trouble paying their bills in the coming months. 

‘We have to try lifting ourselves’: USAID workers fired months ago are still scrambling for jobs
USAID’s former workers are used to helping people and projects around the world – but now they’re turning inward to support each other.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/19/usaid-workers-next-job/83332416007

CBS News: Federal workers spoke to reporters after DOGE fired them. Now they face investigation.

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At least half a dozen USAID employees who spoke to reporters after they thought they had been fired by the Trump administration have now received notices from the foreign aid agency’s internal human resources office that they are facing investigation for participating in interviews.

The workers, whose formal dismissal date was delayed after leaders encountered bureaucratic snags, received an email in recent days carrying the subject line, “Administrative inquiry.” The email accused them of having “engaged with the press/media without authorization” and threatened “disciplinary action” including “removal from the U.S. Agency for International Development.” 

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“It’s total intimidation,” said Randy Chester, the vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, which is the union that represents USAID employees. He said employees started receiving notices on Monday. The union shared the email exclusively with CBS.

How can they be disciplined after they’ve been fired?

Federal workers spoke to reporters after DOGE fired them. Now they face investigation.
At least half a dozen USAID employees are facing threats of “disciplinary action” for speaking to reporters after they thought they had been fired.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doge-usaid-federal-workers-spoke-to-reporters-investigation

MSNBC: Rubio’s new role is a dangerous step in Trump’s effort to consolidate power

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Whatever the reasons for Waltz being marginalized, Trump is rearranging the deck chairs on a badly listing ship and trying to do it in a way that doesn’t look bad for him. Part of that involves him consolidating two of the most important roles in the federal government — secretary of state and national security adviser — and giving them to Rubio. 

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That’s the kind of loyalty Trump rewards. In order to cover the incompetence of his administration, the president is now consolidating power even further, giving two powerful positions to one sycophantic subordinate.

Rubio’s new role is a dangerous step in Trump’s effort to consolidate power
Chris Hayes says Trump’s choice to marginalize Mike Waltz and give Marco Rubio yet another top job amounts to the president’s latest step to consolidate power.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rubio-s-new-role-is-a-dangerous-step-in-trump-s-effort-to-consolidate-power/ar-AA1E4kyv

Robert Reich: Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos

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Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

Some Democrats fear they’re playing into Trump’s hands by fighting his mass deportations rather than focusing on his failures on bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living.

But it’s not either-or. The theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.

In his first term, not only did his advisers and Cabinet officials put guardrails around his crazier tendencies, but they also provided his first administration a degree of stability and focus. Now, it’s mayhem.

Ineptitude, incompetence, stupidity, and chaos
Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing. That’s the theme that unites everything.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ineptitude-incompetence-stupidity

Washington Post: Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation

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The second Trump administration has clearly made a decision to move fast and break things. Largely gone are the establishment Republican figures and steady hands that sometimes resisted President Donald Trump during his first term. In their place are a bunch of people with less subject-matter and governmental experience but with the zeal of MAGA true believers, eager to implement Trump’s complete governmental overhaul and to bust through the traditional guardrails in the process.

The result is a very — and increasingly — sloppy first two months, by any objective measure.

The editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the string of messages on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging service. The group included the names of prominent administration figures, such as national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, all strategizing about the impending attacks.

The messages were sent before the strikes began last weekend and previewed almost precisely when they ultimately took place.

Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation