Trump Gutting of USAID Moves on to Killing Its Contracts
Plus: What USAID Really Did in Ukraine
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TONIGHT at 8:30 PM ET: Founders Town Hall
SAM STEIN: Trump Gutting of USAID Moves on to Killing Its Contracts
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGAN terminating hundreds of the United States Agency for International Development’s contracts and awards on Tuesday, according to internal documents reviewed by The Bulwark and multiple people familiar with the process.
The exact number of awards and contracts terminated—and what functions they covered—was not known. But one of the people familiar with the process said it would impact “a variety of different countries and sectors” and involved not just future contracts but existing ones. The initial number of proposed terminations, the person said, was 800, though the final figure was whittled down after USAID leaders pleaded their case for maintaining certain functions and funding.
WILL SALETAN: Donald Trump Is Delusional
AMONG THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY—those of us who acknowledge Donald Trump’s prodigious history of false statements—there’s a longstanding debate. Some think Trump knows better and is simply lying. Others think he’s sincerely delusional.
Trump’s latest sitdown interview, taped on Sunday with Bret Baier and aired at length by Fox News on Monday, strongly supports the delusionality theory. And that’s bad news for America and the world.
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TAMAR JACOBY: What USAID Really Did in Ukraine
AMID THE TIDE OF BILGE—lies, personal smears, conspiracy theories, and other drivel—offered by the Trump administration in the last two weeks as an alleged rationale for shutting down USAID and ending America’s decades-long tradition of foreign aid, one legitimate question stands out: How exactly is foreign aid in America’s interest? Or, to put it another way: How and to what extent do we benefit from spending money to improve conditions and better lives in other countries?
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! Snow is blanketing the Queen City with a thin layer, though it’s coming down harder back in D.C., where any precipitation turns travel into a nightmare. Stay safe to all impacted!
"Some of the things that I say will be incorrect." That’s President Elon Musk’s BS defense of lying about USAID expenditures, complete with a kid on his shoulders. Who can blame a guy for lying when he has his kid on his shoulders? We all should.
The Cancer Scams That Foreshadowed MAHA… “Long before R.F.K., Jr., promised to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ wellness influencers were peddling a seductive promise of purity to the desperately sick”, writes Jessica Winter at The New Yorker.
Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature... They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway. (Catrin Einhorn, NYT🎁)
‘This is Serious Business. You Better Start Paying Attention.’ “The most recent aviation disasters were not the new administration's fault. The next ones likely will be”, warns James Fallows.
Becoming… A TV commercial icon. (CBS Sunday Morning)
⌚️ Dear Mr. Vice President… Please take off your Apple Watch (Watches of Espionage
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