WIRED Senior Writer Kate Knibbs explains how the Trump administration's self-proclaimed "America First" policies are, in practice, anything but—particularly their effective destruction of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). See why shuttering the operations of USAID will negatively impact the everyday lives of Americans.
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Matthew Colby
Host: Kate Knibbs
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Chris Eustache
Sound Mixer: Rebecca O'Neill
Production Assistant: Caleb Clark
Researcher: Paul Gulyas
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Rachel Kim
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Matthew Colby
Host: Kate Knibbs
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark
Camera Operator: Chris Eustache
Sound Mixer: Rebecca O'Neill
Production Assistant: Caleb Clark
Researcher: Paul Gulyas
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Rachel Kim
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Category
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TechTranscript
00:001 billion children immunized, 2.2 billion malaria cases prevented, 26 million lives
00:06saved from AIDS.
00:07For 60 years, USAID, America's foreign assistance agency, has fed the hungry and prevented disease
00:13worldwide.
00:1440% of total global humanitarian aid came from the U.S., with two-thirds of that coming
00:19from USAID.
00:20Recently, President Trump and Elon Musk all but gutted the agency as part of their so-called
00:25America First policies.
00:27But in our globalized economy, the data suggests that slashing upwards of 90% of USAID's
00:32budget, or $60 billion, may have unexpected blowback here in the U.S., contributing to
00:36rising food prices, making us susceptible to epidemics at home, and damaging the livelihoods
00:42of many Americans, especially farmers in the heartland.
00:45WIRED pinpointed some critical food and medical cuts to USAID and placed their impact on the
00:51health and wealth of everyday Americans on the grid.
00:56This was the headquarters of the USAID offices in D.C.
01:00Google Maps lists the office as permanently closed.
01:03Only a few hundred out of the agency's 13,000 employees will retain their jobs.
01:08But when they were in business, USAID wasn't spending American taxpayer funds only on foreigners,
01:12as many claim.
01:1380% of the companies that had contracts with the agency were American.
01:17USAID was investing money back into the pockets of as many as 50,000 American contractors
01:22employed by universities, nonprofits, and aid organizations.
01:26This map will give you an idea of just how many American institutions were partnering
01:30with USAID before the cuts.
01:32From Columbia University's Research Center helping countries plan for climate change
01:36to a partnership with the Coca-Cola Company improving access to water and sanitation services.
01:42USAID money funded American universities, businesses, and charities to the tune of $28
01:47billion annually, only 0.7% of the total federal budget.
01:52That fed a multitude of programs aimed at promoting global health, democracy, and other
01:57foreign policy aims of the U.S.
01:59Because so much was affected, we can't cover it all in a single video.
02:02So we'll be focusing on the two most critical aspects of USAID, food and health.
02:07A huge USAID program, Food for Peace, bought surplus food from American farmers and delivered
02:13it to countries in need, benefiting over 4 billion hungry people worldwide since 1954.
02:18So when malnourished children received much-needed breakfasts in Afghanistan, or families in
02:23famine-prone Sudan lined up for a meal from an emergency kitchen, 41% of that food was
02:28sourced directly from American farmers who were paid about $2 billion annually.
02:33$2 billion bought everything from Iowa soybean oil to Oklahoma wheat, Kansas lentils, produce
02:40from Virginia, and Georgia peanut products, including a nutritional paste that's a powerhouse
02:46for fighting hunger.
02:47The products were then sent around the globe by USAID and its contractors.
02:51But by mid-February, just days after the cuts began, $489 million worth of food assistance
02:57and over 500,000 metric tons of American-grown food, already paid for by USAID, remained
03:02stranded in ports or in transit, with a significant portion at risk of spoiling.
03:07In Larned, Kansas, the Pawnee County Cooperative Association reportedly had 1.5 million bushels
03:12of sorghum, a key grain in cereals, in storage with no one to buy it.
03:17But Houston had 235,000 tons of wheat stranded in warehouses, according to local sources,
03:23as well as 30,000 metric tons of cornmeal, pinto beans, lentils, rice, and vegetable
03:28oil.
03:29Similar issues reportedly impacted ports in Boston, Miami, Norfolk, Savannah, New York,
03:34Chicago, and Lake Charles.
03:36At ports in Kenya, nearly $200 million in emergency food aid remained undelivered.
03:41Contractors and local USAID staff responsible for getting the food, which had already been
03:45bought and paid for, from the Kenyan ports to the South Sudanese people, did not receive
03:49payment due to the USAID pause.
03:51In South Sudan, about 7.1 million people, more than half the population, require food
03:56assistance, with 1.6 million children at risk of acute malnutrition.
04:00South Sudan lacks basic infrastructure like paved roads, making aid delivery expensive
04:05and inefficient.
04:06For example, Pagir is a remote area in South Sudan that humanitarian workers can only access
04:12by taking a two-hour flight followed by a four-hour canoe journey, then a six-hour trek
04:16through a swamp.
04:18As a result, those suffering will not receive this food.
04:20The food will go to waste, or possibly be stolen from the docks.
04:24According to the World Health Organization, which the Trump administration tries to discredit,
04:28at any given moment 733 million people are experiencing food insecurities somewhere in
04:34the world.
04:35To combat hunger back in the U.S., scientists are studying things like the resilience of
04:39specific crops like wheat and peanuts.
04:41Seventeen food science research labs housed at various American universities, including
04:46Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, and Purdue University, received
04:51millions of dollars from USAID's Feed the Future program.
04:54But due to the cuts, they've had to pause their research.
04:57The Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois has laid off 30 employees and
05:02expects to close down if funding isn't restored.
05:04They worked with farmers in Madagascar and Nigeria, as well as Pakistan, India, and Indonesia
05:10to breed soybean varieties that are resistant to diseases like soybean rust.
05:15Research like this benefits American farmers by helping them prepare for crop diseases
05:19we see everywhere in the world.
05:21For example, knowing how to best grow crops in dry or hot conditions will be more crucial
05:25in a world increasingly touched by climate change.
05:28Without this research, farmers everywhere will be left ill-equipped in the face of a
05:32heating planet.
05:34Let's talk about rising food prices.
05:36What many don't realize is that USAID has helped keep prices of some products in check
05:40for Americans, for years, by supporting the production of specific agricultural commodities
05:45like chocolate, coffee, spices, and even rubber in developing countries.
05:49How?
05:50Well, let's take coffee as an example.
05:52The U.S. coffee industry contributes 1.6% to the U.S. GDP and supports nearly 1.7 million
05:57American jobs.
05:59For years, USAID partnered with U.S. coffee companies and small farmers abroad in places
06:03like Africa, Central and South America, and Indonesia to combat crop diseases and improve
06:09coffee supply chains by providing digital tools and training to coffee breeders with
06:13a goal of increasing capacity, ensuring that U.S. coffee businesses had access to a stable
06:18and high-quality supply.
06:19With the USAID cuts, this is no longer guaranteed and prices may spike.
06:24Similar programs in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Ecuador, where cacao grows, were in place
06:28to ensure America's supply of chocolate flows.
06:32Cacao is critical to the candy industry, which supports at least 70,000 American jobs.
06:37In Maryland, spice giant McCormick & Company has benefited from a USAID partnership with
06:42the Ohio-based Cooperative Business Association, or CBI, to enhance spice production in Indonesia.
06:48This program rehabilitated abandoned plantations, built new ones, and improved yields of vanilla
06:53green nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and of course, pumpkin spice.
06:58CBI's local affiliate, AgriSpice Indonesia, supplied well-priced spices to a variety of
07:04McCormick products.
07:06Also in Indonesia, USAID has helped Royal Lestari Utama, a company owned by Michelin,
07:11get a loan for its sustainable rubber plantation, which feeds the U.S. tire industry, particularly
07:16in South Carolina.
07:18These are just a few examples of how, by strengthening supply chains and improving productivity in
07:23developing countries, USAID-funded programs maintain the availability and affordability
07:28of key raw materials for U.S. industries, whose products then turn out to be cheaper
07:32for American consumers.
07:34Now let's turn to the impact of USAID cuts on health.
07:37Up to a million lives were saved in 2016 when a famine in the Horn of Africa was predicted
07:42and responded to by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FUSENET.
07:47Using data analysis of weather and armed conflicts to predict famines and distribute food aid,
07:52this successful system was paid for by USAID and largely run by Comonix, a private D.C.-based
07:59international development firm.
08:01Cuts by DOGE have led to the program going offline.
08:04Comonix has furloughed 88% of its U.S.-based workforce.
08:09Experts warn that without FUSENET, humanitarian response efforts will be less effective, leading
08:14to more hunger and instability around the globe.
08:19And food instability in developing nations has been closely linked to increased violent
08:24extremism.
08:25In northeastern Nigeria, the jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram offers meals to attract potential
08:30recruits.
08:31There are also reports from 2017 of ISIS luring unaccompanied child refugees out of Syria
08:37with food and cash.
08:38Since we're talking about ISIS, the USAID cuts affect payments and support to the Kurdish-led
08:43Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, who manage camps holding ISIS members and their families.
08:49Around 10,000 suspected ISIS fighters are imprisoned in 28 jails across northeastern
08:54Syria, with the largest being the al-Sina prison in Hisakah.
08:57U.S. and Syrian officials have warned that weakened security here could lead to an ISIS
09:01revival.
09:02Clearly, dismantling or even pausing USAID programs not only weakens humanitarian efforts
09:07but also undermines American national security and foreign policy objectives.
09:11Let's turn our attention to the impact of USAID cuts on our health.
09:16The Trump administration revoked over 10,000 global health grants from USAID and the State
09:20Department that played a significant role in global disease prevention.
09:24These included outbreak surveillance, which means global collaboration to detect and respond
09:29to emerging infectious diseases.
09:31The global bird flu pandemic is currently spreading throughout the U.S.
09:35USAID funded avian flu surveillance in 49 countries around the world.
09:40That involved collecting samples from farms with high levels of poultry mortality and
09:44testing them, notifying farmers of results, monitoring migratory birds and the cross-border
09:49poultry trade, and sharing all of that collected data.
09:52The USAID cuts have ended that program, which is bad news because the response to bird flu
09:57experts warn requires global cooperation.
10:00The previous outbreak in 2014 cost the American poultry industry approximately $1.6 billion.
10:07The case of an Iowa man who died recently of Lassa fever after visiting in West Africa
10:12is proof that infectious diseases from other continents are just an international flight away.
10:17Uganda is facing its eighth Ebola outbreak, with the first confirmed case being a nurse
10:22in Kampala who died on January 29th.
10:25The outbreak involves the deadly Sudan Strain.
10:28However, contact tracing and traveler screenings in Uganda have been disrupted.
10:32Why?
10:33On February 26th, Elon Musk admitted that Doge accidentally canceled USAID's Ebola
10:39prevention funding, but assured us once they discovered the error that it was quickly restored.
10:44However, as I reported for WIRED the following day, emergency waivers meant to sustain some
10:49of USAID's humanitarian programs, including those focused on Ebola, have been ineffective,
10:54in part because most USAID staff have been laid off, leading to delayed responses to
10:59Uganda's Ebola outbreak.
11:01With America now refusing to meet the moment in regards to Uganda's latest Ebola outbreak,
11:05CBS has reported that Russia has launched a mobile lab there to assist with outbreak containment.
11:11And alarmingly, a new unidentified hemorrhagic fever has emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
11:16It has claimed over 60 lives and made over 1,000 people ill.
11:20Historically, USAID played a key role in identifying pathogens by funding the testing of virus
11:25samples in laboratories.
11:26Dismantling USAID made this particular illness harder to investigate.
11:31One way to combat infectious diseases on the rise around the world, such as cholera
11:36in Afghanistan, polio in Yemen, and dengue across Central America and the Caribbean,
11:41is vaccines.
11:42And they don't just save lives, vaccines also save money.
11:46According to a study by Johns Hopkins University, every dollar spent on immunization yields
11:51a $16 return by reducing the cost of illness treatment.
11:54In an additional analysis that considers the wider economic impact of illness, every dollar
11:59spent on vaccinations could save $44, according to the CDC.
12:03The USAID funding freeze has halted at least one notable vaccine development program, a
12:08$45 million award to the South African Medical Research Council, which aims to end HIV in Africa.
12:15In late January, a group of researchers from eight African countries planned to initiate
12:19a phase one clinical trial for two experimental HIV vaccines, enrolling dozens of volunteers
12:24in South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda.
12:27If this vaccine is found to be safe and efficacious, it could help prevent millions of lives of
12:33South Africans that are currently being lost.
12:36There are no FDA-approved HIV vaccines in the U.S. yet, so new vaccines that are developed
12:41overseas could be promising contenders for the first HIV vaccine in the U.S. too.
12:46That study is now on hold indefinitely since the funding no longer exists.
12:51According to a report from The Guardian, an estimated 500,000 South Africans could die
12:55because of this blow to crucial research, plus the removal of other USAID funds, which
13:00assist in the diagnosis and dispensing of antiretroviral medications, which keep infected
13:05patients alive.
13:06Another way to stave off illness is prevention, and in the Amazon basin, USAID was on the
13:11forefront of initiatives to control malaria in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
13:17and Suriname.
13:18Through the Amazon Malaria Initiative, USAID funded tailored interventions to region-specific
13:23needs.
13:24With funding cut off and employees furloughed, the trust and goodwill USAID has worked hard
13:28to grow has been thwarted.
13:30And once trust is lost, it's hard to build back.
13:33In 2023, there were an estimated 597,000 malaria deaths worldwide, mainly in Africa, with children
13:39under 5 constituting 76% of the deaths in this region.
13:45These Food and Health Program cuts are just a fraction of the story of what USAID's dismantling
13:50ultimately means for our country and the world.
13:53Experts say that abruptly cutting off this work will kill untold numbers of people around
13:58the world.
13:59There are some people within the U.S. who are unmoved by how disastrous this choice
14:03will be for people across the globe.
14:05They say our dollars are better spent solely on domestic projects, but this viewpoint fails
14:10to consider how interconnected we are, and how deeply damaging it will be for Americans
14:15if our country is considered a callous, rogue state.
14:18The U.S. turning its back on humanitarian aid in such a sweeping and abrupt way is also
14:23an out-and-out win for China, a country that is still eagerly pursuing international development
14:27projects as a way to win power and influence abroad.
14:30They've already invested over $1 trillion in infrastructure as part of their own USAID.
14:35Ultimately, the cuts to USAID will have unexpected impacts on the livelihoods of Americans and
14:40make the U.S. less safe.
14:41The full impact is only beginning to unfold, so stay updated with our continuing coverage
14:46on WIRED.com.
14:48Thanks for watching On The Grid.