By Katherine Tinsley
1:45pm PDT, Jul 3, 2025
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George W. Bush teamed up with
Barack Obama and rockstar
Bono to comfort United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers after
Donald Trump and his administration shuttered the department due to alleged fraud and abuse.
Keep reading for the details…
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George W. Bush — who's been extremely reclusive in the years since his presidency — applauded the contributions of USAID despite Donald Trump's disapproval. "You've shown the great strength of America through your work — and that is your good heart. Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you," he said in a sendoff video to USAID staffers shared by the
Associated Press.
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Barack Obama chimed in, "Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world."
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Barack Obama branded the choice to shutter USAID "a colossal mistake" and noted how "sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed."
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Bono noted how DOGE accused USAID of mismanagement and government overspending after Elon Musk called the organization "a viper's nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America." Said the U2 frontman, "They called you crooks when you were the best of us."
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who serves as the acting administrator of USAID, revealed that the State Department took over USAID's foreign assistance programs. "Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies — and which advance American interests — will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency," he said.
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Donald Trump praised DOGE's efforts to cut wasteful spending on USAID. "Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma,"
he complained of their projects. "Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender."
