NYT’s Nicholas Kristof Slams Trump and Musk for Cruel Dismantling of USAID, Warns of Global Consequences

President Donald Trump’s push to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is not only illegal and counterproductive but deeply cruel, argued New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in a blistering critique published Wednesday. Kristof described the effort—championed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and tech billionaire Elon Musk—as an attack on the world’s most vulnerable people, driven by some of its wealthiest.

“By my calculations, Elon Musk probably has a net worth greater than that of the poorest billion people on Earth,” Kristof wrote. “Just since Donald Trump’s election, Musk’s personal net worth has grown by far more than the entire annual budget of USAID, which in any case accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

It’s callous for gleeful billionaires like Musk and President Trump to cut children off from medicine, but, as President John F. Kennedy pointed out when he proposed the creation of the agency in 1961, it’s also myopic.” Kennedy, Kristof noted, understood that foreign aid was not just about generosity but about ensuring stability worldwide—an investment in America’s own security.

“Perhaps that’s why Russia has praised Trump’s move,” Kristof continued. “In contrast with Kennedy, the Trump administration braids together cruelty, ignorance, and shortsightedness, and that combination seems particularly evident in its assault on American humanitarian assistance.”

Kristof emphasized that USAID plays a critical role in global health. He warned that Trump’s decision could have disastrous consequences, particularly amid concerns of a growing bird flu outbreak. “One person has already died of bird flu in the United States, and there is growing concern of a pandemic—yet Trump’s suspension of foreign aid has interrupted bird flu surveillance in 49 countries, according to the Global Health Council, a U.S.-based nonprofit,” he wrote.

Kristof reminded readers of past global health crises, pointing out that USAID’s work was pivotal in containing Ebola in 2014—an outbreak that once had Americans in a panic, including Trump himself. He also cited the success of former President George W. Bush’s AIDS relief program, which relied heavily on USAID and is credited with saving 26 million lives.

“I saw coffin makers in Lesotho and Malawi grumble that their business was collapsing because far fewer people were dying,” he recalled. Kristof concluded with a scathing indictment of Trump and his allies.

“Around the world, children are already missing health care and food because of the assault on the agency that Kennedy founded to uphold our values and protect our interests,” he wrote. “To billionaires in the White House, it may seem like a game. But to anyone with a heart, it’s about children’s lives and our own security, and what’s unfolding is sickening.”