It had turned into a state department front that was getting people killed by interfering in domestic politics. Even Mexico’s President, who is one of Trump’s strongest critics, agreed with that move:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-musk-unexpected-ally-push-shu...“During a press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum voiced support for shutting down USAID, criticizing the agency's role in funding organizations she described as working against Mexican interests.
‘It's involved in so many things that, honestly, it's better if they just shut it down. If there's going to be aid, it should come through other transparent channels—that's the real issue,’ Sheinbaum said.”
Also the former African Union ambassador to the U.S.: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-bottom-line/2025/3/16/ch... (“Chihombori-Quao: USAID was ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ in Africa”).
USAID was funding political organizations in either India or Bangladesh, which kicked off a shitstorm in both countries: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/usaid-biggest-scam-in-histor...
Like I said, the world is a lot more complicated than you learned about in elementary school. Your teacher taught you foreign aid workers selflessly help starving kids in poor countries. But interfering in domestic politics gets kids killed. My dad worked on USAID’s maternal health and vaccine programs in Bangladesh. But if it contributed in any way to the destabilization of Bangladesh in 2024, then it will have killed far more children in the long run than it saved. The math is brutal: in a poor country like Bangladesh, GDP growth directly drives down child mortality. Anything that sets back economic growth even a few years translates to hundreds of thousands of dead children.