Foreign aid pays dividends for America — Close to Home

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Halting foreign assistance isn’t just a policy mistake — it’s an act of political vandalism that weakens America while strengthening our adversaries.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and don’t necessarily reflect The Press Democrat editorial board’s perspective. The opinion and news sections operate separately and independently of one another.

For over 30 years, I have worked in international development, advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives in over 25 countries — from Sri Lanka and Myanmar to Lebanon, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Bolivia. I have proudly served under multiple U.S. presidents, regardless of their party affiliation, because foreign assistance isn’t about politics — it’s about American leadership, national security and global stability.

Four years ago, I arrived in Petaluma after being abruptly evacuated from Myanmar following a military coup. In just a few hours, the entire democratically elected government was arrested, and the military seized control of a country of 55 million people. Protesters took to the streets, only to be met with brutal repression, which continues today.

Having witnessed firsthand the devastation of unchecked power, I know how one leader’s reckless decision can destabilize a nation and ruin lives for generations. That’s why I’m terrified as I watch the United States deliberately retreat from its role as a global leader.

Halting foreign assistance, refusing to reimburse American companies for legally performed work and recklessly dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development isn’t just a policy mistake — it’s an act of political vandalism by the Trump administration that weakens America while strengthening our adversaries.

For decades, USAID has been a pillar of U.S. global influence, promoting democracy, economic growth and stability while advancing American interests. USAID provides long-term solutions to poverty, public health crises and economic instability, preventing costly military interventions in the future. Yet this critical work has been gutted overnight.

It is clear now that USAID ought to have done a better job educating Americans about how and why foreign assistance helps us as much at home as it does abroad, and for pennies a day. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have attacked USAID as a “criminal organization that must die.” But let’s be clear: this isn’t about saving taxpayer money or improving efficiency, it’s about dismantling the administrative state to ensure that only loyalists make decisions about our well-being. This is a coup.

This American coup is starting with foreign assistance but will not stop there. Has anyone asked how much money is actually being saved? How much is the U.S. government losing by halting contracts mid-project? Currently, $8.2 billion in lifesaving medicine, food, medical services, and shelter materials are being unused and unattended. Food is rotting in warehouses while people are starving. This is taxpayer money, already spent, wasted due to the freeze on foreign assistance.

How many Americans will have to rely on unemployment because their contracts were terminated overnight? What will happen to states that rely on tax payments from people and companies working to promote international development? And what of the multiplier effects on industries and vendors who serve the field of foreign assistance, including travel agents, airlines, hotel chains, bankers and insurance companies, among others.

The administration’s actions aren’t about fiscal responsibility. This is an ideological purge that weakens America and Americans, hurts American businesses, weakens our standing abroad, emboldens China and Russia and destabilizes global health systems.

U.S. foreign assistance is more than humanitarian assistance to poor nations. It is a strategic national security tool, used to strengthen alliances, counter China’s influence, and prevent global crises from reaching American shores.

When a country collapses into poverty, instability or conflict, it does not just affect its own citizens. It has global repercussions like allowing violent extremist groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram to thrive, or drug cartels to expand their influence. It promotes mass migration surges as people flee famine, violence and economic despair. Global markets suffer, and the ripple effects hit U.S. businesses and U.S. citizens here at home.

While Trump and Musk shut down foreign assistance, China is aggressively expanding its reach through its Belt and Road initiative, which offers infrastructure projects, loans and economic deals to developing nations that will be beholden to them for decades. China is gaining control over ports, trade routes and political alliances that used to be within America’s sphere of influence. What happens when they start charging tariffs for ships to pass in waters they now control?

Dismantling foreign assistance and eviscerating USAID is not just a policy failure, it is an illegal power grab designed to remove apolitical career professionals from the bureaucracy to help ensure only party loyalists get access to power in the U.S. USAID is an independent agency within the executive branch, and only Congress has the power to dismantle it. If we stand for this now, then what’s next? Government assistance only for those who vote a certain way?

If we normalize the idea that a president can erase an entire federal agency with the stroke of a pen, we are one step closer to a dictatorship. Demand that Congress does its job and stops this coup.

For decades, USAID has ensured that the U.S. shapes the global order, rather than reacting to it. Gut this investment and we’ll be left with fewer tools to prevent war, disease and economic crises. If history has taught us anything, it’s that preventing a crisis is far cheaper than cleaning up after one.

Brenda Barrett has worked globally on political stabilization and peacebuilding programs as an employee and contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. She lives in Petaluma.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.

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Foreign aid pays dividends for America — Close to Home

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