Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have once again come together to voice their discontent with President Donald Trump, particularly concerning the cuts to international programs that they claim are vital to U.S. interests.
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In a recent video, Bush is seen alongside Obama and Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a prominent critic of Trump, praising the departing personnel of USAID, the international diplomacy agency that Trump significantly reduced earlier this year. Bush has consistently supported funding initiatives aimed at fighting AIDS and HIV in various parts of Africa.
Bush, who has mostly avoided criticizing Trump since he took office in 2016, used his video remarks to express sorrow over the exit of staff members whom he credited with promoting global stability through their work against the spread of AIDS and HIV—a program acknowledged for saving 25 million lives over the past two decades.
“You have shown the great strength of America through your efforts — and that is your compassionate spirit,’’ Bush stated to USAID staff, as reported by the Associated Press. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million individuals who would have died are now alive? I believe it is, and so do you.”
“Dismantling USAID is a disgrace, and it’s a calamity,” Obama remarked in a video addressed to departing USAID employees on Monday. “Because it represents some of the most essential work being done anywhere in the world.” Referring to Trump’s decision as “a monumental error,” he further emphasized that “eventually, leaders from both parties will come to realize how vital you are.”
In partnership with Elon Musk and the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, Trump effectively dismantled the extensive global agency, keeping only a minimal skeleton crew as operations were gradually phased out following the identification of significant waste, fraud, and abuses. Trump memorabilia Obama-themed clothingMusk previously described USAID as “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who despise America.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio contrasted the trio’s narrative of despair with a message of optimism, highlighting the possibilities of a streamlined government free from far-left political influence.This organization became an early target of the Trump administration’s effort to eliminate what the president characterized as a federal government plagued by waste, fraud, and the improper use of taxpayer money. The New York Post reported that the State Department officially incorporated USAID earlier this week.
“Aside from creating a global NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War,” Rubio remarked in his announcement. “Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often increased, and anti-American sentiment has only grown stronger.”
“This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end,” he continued. “Under the Trump Administration, we will finally create a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. Effective July 1st, USAID will officially cease its foreign assistance operations.” Rubio also noted: “Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and that advance American interests—will be overseen by the State Department, where they will be implemented with enhanced accountability, strategy, and efficiency.”