Food that was supposed to be distributed to millions of hungry people, worth half a billion dollars, is currently being spoiled after Donald Trump stopped all American aid around the world – and the person who revealed this was immediately fired by the Trump regime!
Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk have shut down USAID, which was the world’s largest donor and accounted for 40 percent of all humanitarian aid in the world. They claim they are doing this to “reduce waste” and “increase efficiency” – but how is it efficient to let food worth 500 million dollars go to waste instead of feeding starving people? Isn’t that the very essense of wastefulness?
What Trump and Musk is doing to USAID is not only immoral but also illegal, yet Trump and Musk completely disregard what is legal right now by halting aid that Congress has approved in a very authoritarian way. Here are more examples of life-saving measures that have been stopped by Trump and Musk:
- Ivory Coast: A US-sponsored program to collect sensitive intelligence information about Al Qaeda-related incidents has been discontinued.
- Sudan: Most soup kitchens feeding 816,000 people in Khartoum have been closed down.
- Uganda: Aid workers say that around 40 newborns were infected with HIV per day when the USA stopped funding antiretroviral drugs.
- Ukraine & Syria: Organizations providing maternal care, vaccinations, and firewood have been forced to cease their operations.
- Thailand: Patients were told to leave a US-funded refugee hospital on the border of Myanmar.
Additionally, hundreds of Christian organizations around the world have been forced to halt initiatives to provide food and healthcare to millions of poor people. Several evangelical organizations and churches have now appealed to Trump to restore aid to Christian organizations – something he refuses to do.
At the same time, there are other evangelical Christians who completely rejoice over the closure of USAID because it is seen as “anti-woke” and because they believe in the propaganda that it combats corruption. How does that combat corruption by stopping care for children with HIV and letting food rot, you wonder?
Of course it does not. Instead, Trump and Musk ensure that they benefit themselves and their companies while pocketing billions from aid meant for the poorest. The love for money is truly a root of all evil, as the Bible says (1 Tim 6:10).
Both Trump and Musk have repeatedly lied about USAID supposedly spending 50 million dollars on “condoms for Hamas.” In reality, they spent the 50 million on an AIDS program in the Gaza province of Mozambique, not in the Gaza Strip.
Musk was confronted about this by a journalist at the White House, and he admitted he was wrong (without saying that the aid should be reinstated) but claimed that it is still unreasonable to spend 50 million on condoms somewhere because there are too many condoms—despite the fact that the majority of the project is not about purchasing condoms at all, but rather about combating AIDS in other ways!
It is completely incomprehensible how an incredible amount of competence and experience in helping the poor is thrown in the trash when USAID is shut down, while the incompetent, criminal billionaires Trump and Musk have been given more power than anyone else on earth.
And the sad part is that many Christians cheer for them while at the same time cutting back on the massive amount of aid work carried out by Christian organizations. May God bring repentance, sanity and hope to the United States.
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
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After listening to many different information outlets, I was under the distinct impression that the stoppage of funds was only paused during the audit of USAID, and that all humanitarian efforts would resume asap . . . minus the fraud and corruption.
Personally, I find Mr. Grenholms’ commentary rather bias and myopic considering what Mr. Trump is attempting to accomplish. Mr. Grenholms’ story strongly implies that Mr.Trumps’ actions are intentionally malicious and starvation is the desired result, . . instead of an unfortunate and TEMPORARY side affect of his unprecedented effort to remove the waste and corruption within the U.S. government . . . which is the true goal.
And I’m pretty sure you already knew this BEFORE you wrote your piece Mr. Grenholm. Painting POTUS as a killer of children seems pretty desperate. Perhaps USAID has funds for providing common sense and truth to those like you.
Peaceout and God bless.
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This literally sounds like A BUNCH OF LIES-so, Trump stopped aid to certain “humanitarian” efforts, and he’s being blamed for food spoiling?! Sounds like the food was already purchased- so….why didn’t the “humanitarians” just distribute it instead of letting it go bad? I’ll tell you why-because when the money stopped rolling in, they needed to create a ‘crisis’ to try and guilt trump into sending the money again….so they’re letting the food spoil, and apparently letting ppl starve to prove a point…also, it’s funny how the left was literally INTOLERANT of christians and christian values, and refused to acknowledge Christ, but now that trump is cutting out the overhead, it’s “oh all these CHRISTIAN organizations ” and “how can CHRISTIANS cheer him on” and “he’s stopping CHRISTIANS from giving humanitarian aid!!!” Oh puh-leaze. Yall didn’t even acknowledge the existence of God a year ago but now the whole organization is Christian? Let’s call a spade a spade, stop being manipulative. Lucky for you guys, God doesn’t need your resources, just your obedience. LET ME BE CLEAR -I AM IN NO WAY SAYING I DONT EMPATHIZE WITH OR CARE ABOUT THE PPL WHO GENUINELY NEEDED THAT AID-but I have a feeling those aren’t the ones raising the most hell about it, and they’re also not the reason the ones that are raising the most hell about it are doing so.
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Almost $500 million in food aid is at risk of spoilage as it sits in ports, ships and warehouses after funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, was paused by the Trump administration, according to a Feb. 10 report from a government watchdog.
The report from USAID’s inspector general highlighted the risks of “safeguarding and distribution” of $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump administration ordered almost all staff to be placed on leave and ordered a review of U.S. foreign assistance programs.
USAID, which provides humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries, buys food directly from U.S. farmers and manufacturers, which have typically provided about 40% of international food assistance, according to a 2021 report from the Congressional Research Service. With USAID funding paused, there is concern among U.S. farmers about the market for some of their products, including Kansas sorghum producers, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
While the future of USAID’s funding and its purchases from U.S. farmers remains unclear, there is currently $489 million worth of food sitting “at ports, in transit, and in warehouses at risk of spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and diversion,” the Feb. 10 USAID inspector general report said.
An additional 500,000 additional metric tons of food is currently on ships or ready to be shipped abroad, the report added. USAID typically buys commodities such as wheat, soybeans, sorghum and split peas from U.S. farmers.
“When the food doesn’t get to where it needs to go, it winds up in a landfill, and that has devastating effects,” Ashley Stanley, the CEO of Spoonfuls, which redirects excess food from grocers and other companies to aid organizations in Massachusetts, told CBS Boston.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, which has been tasked with overseeing USAID, said on Feb. 12 that Secretary Marco Rubio has coordinated with the Department of Agriculture to resume USAID’s food aid program, called Food for Peace.
“This includes $396 million in agricultural commodities (542,000 metric tons) currently in the supply chain from the U.S. to countries in crisis around the world,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Separately, President Trump on Tuesday fired the USAID inspector general one day after he released the report detailing the potential food spoilage. Paul Martin, the ousted inspector general, was given no reason for his dismissal in a two-sentence email from Trent Morse, deputy director of the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel.
Source.
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How about next time you read the sources before you accuse them of being lies?
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