This past week, The Financial Times reported on the impact of the US Government’s decision to close USAID and by extension Pepfar.
President George Bush, in 2003, launched the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar). Let’s pause here and remember that Bush was a twice elected Republican president. He was not perfect by any stretch but he did have a working heart for people and in this case, he was concerned about millions of children who were at a high risk of contracting HIV. Pepfar was organized to save the lives of millions of human beings
By all non-political accounts, Pepfar has been effective at that life saving mission. The Lancet has estimated that 92 million people have been saved by USAID’s administration of Pepfar.
January 20, 2025 Donald Trump entered The White House with Elon Musk in tow. Musk is put in charge of DOGE, a government efficiency operation built to root out government waste. He quickly makes USAID a target. He called USAID a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America, a criminal organization” and compared USAID’s aid to “money laundering.”
Musk ordered 10,000 USAID workers to stand down and 80% of all programs axed. Members of the US Congress are attempting to save parts of the program. But it does not end there. Several other countries have begun to cut aid programmes as well.
I am an American and I have been fortunate enough in my work to help organizations build their human capital to assist in the delivery of medicines and vaccines that Pepfar produced. I have seen the effort and the life saving results that George Bush and the US Government put in motion all those years ago.
Donald Trump has done a great deal of damage to my country since January 20, 2025. In my view, nothing he has done compares to destroying USAID. History will attribute the unnecessary loss of lives to him and Musk. They broke USAID and they own all the outcomes.
CODA
On August 4, 2025, the Tesla board of directors approved the award of 96mn shares worth about $30bn to Elon Musk as part of a new pay deal after he threatened to leave the electric-vehicle maker if he was not given more control.
Elon was right about one bit. There are vipers on the loose.
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