The End of U.S. Soft Power

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the interim head of USAID, for however much longer the agency lasts. For 60 years, the massive bureaucracy was a vehicle for American soft power abroad. Trump, Elon Musk, and all their creatures don’t like it. It might soon be gone.
Nicole Widdersheim is the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch with a long history of humanitarian work. She’s here on Angry Planet today to walk us through this new era of the American Empire.
A brief history of USAID
The size and cost of USAID
Critiquing a bureaucracy
People like you when you give them stuff
Defense, diplomacy, development
The real world consequences of the ending of foreign aid
A mallet, not a scalpel
Supporters need to get cynical
USAID did a bad job of defending itself
Americans don’t care about the human cost
The Glorious Republic of Jasonvania wants food aid
Congressionally approved rice to North Korea
It turns out the cruelty is, in fact, the point
At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep
No one read those reports on Afghanistan
How China’s “Belt and Road” actually works
The end of USAID will screw over American farmers
Trumpism is a lack of consistency
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