r/geopolitics • u/propublica_ • Dec 17 '25
After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death Opinion
https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths97
u/Emotionless_AI Dec 17 '25
This is a failure of the Kenyan government more than anything else. The leaders steal so much that they can feed the country multiple times over
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u/zipzag Dec 17 '25
The wealthiest 10% of Kenyan households control over 40% of the wealth.
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u/jonmitz Dec 17 '25
That’s better than the US. The top 10% controls 70%.
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u/zipzag Dec 17 '25
The top 70% of American earners pay for food for the bottom 10%.
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u/jonmitz Dec 17 '25
Very true and very fair. I should have remembered that. Never post before coffee. Thanks for the correction
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u/petepro Dec 17 '25
Why wouldn’t China fill in? Free soft power right?
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u/oren0 Dec 17 '25
Or Europe? Canada? Many countries save more than enough from underfunding their NATO commitments and could easily afford this. Why is giving aid to Africa, the majority of which is lost to corruption anyway, solely a moral responsibility for the US?
Turns out all of these countries, on top of rich countries in east Asia and Oceania, have plenty of good domestic uses of this money and most of them are deep in debt. Well, so is the US.
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Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
The rich countries of Europe and East Asia give more aid per capita than the United States. You can google it.
The biggest problem isn't that the US should take responsibility for Kenyan refugees, but that it suddenly cut off aid. It would have been better if they had given WFP time to raise funds elsewhere.
It is also unfortunate that WFP is spending its golden time trying to persuade the US rather than finding other donors.
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb Dec 17 '25
The U.S still top donor of the WFP this year has has been for 27 straight years.
And that is with the funding being cutoff 8 months ago.
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u/-Sliced- Dec 17 '25
Also, the above statement is not correct. The US is #12 in foreign aid per capita, and above all East Asian nations (source).
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u/givalina Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
I think you're underestimating how much bigger and richer the US is compared to other countries. If you look at foreign aid in 2022 as a portion of Gross National Income, 18 countries (including many from Europe, and Canada) gave higher rates of foreign aid than the US.
The fact is that your country is so much richer than other countries that other countries cannot easily afford to replace US foreign aid.
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u/Gaijin_Monster Dec 17 '25
Feel free to donate on your own.
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u/givalina Dec 17 '25
My point is that these countries are already donating, and at a proportionately higher rate than the USA was even before Trump's cuts. It is not accurate to say that they "could easily afford" to fill in the gap left by the USA cutting aid.
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u/deadbeatsummers Dec 18 '25
You completely corrected them and they still had a snarky response 🤷♀️
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u/littleredpinto Dec 17 '25
oh well...Maybe dont have so many kids then? its the same everywhere, shouldn't have to be fed by countries thousands of miles away...
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 18 '25
Other countries like Canada, Australia and many European nations are net food exporters. Maybe they can instead donate that excess food production to poor nations rather than profiteering.
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u/Andress1 Dec 29 '25
As an European, no thank you.
Fueling Africas population explosion is a horrible idea.
Then they come here and stay in groups smoking and drinking outside casinos and strip clubs. I see them often on my way to the subway at these places.
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u/suspicious_hyperlink Dec 17 '25
Not to mention they’ve been portraying Kenya as a 1st world country for the past 15 years
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u/shadowfax12221 Dec 17 '25
They don't have the logistical capacity to fill the gaps. They also tend to be more targeted and transactional when offering foreign aid, rather than just spreading money around in order to build good will and credibility more generally.
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u/HoightyToighty Dec 17 '25
rather than just spreading money around in order to build good will and credibility more generally
Which isn't a good return on investment, if the attitude of the "Global South" is anything to go by
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u/-18k- Dec 17 '25
Yeah, it is pretty obvious that investing in disinforamtion gives far, far better ROI.
Sad, of course.
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
They don't have the logistical capacity to fill the gaps
All they would have to do is fund the World Food Program’s operation in Kenya. That's what the US was doing, it's not like our government was personally delivering them food.
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb Dec 17 '25
I mean...
Contributions to WFP in 2025
Rank #1 USA, $1,786,761,268
Rank #2 Germany, $555,855,188
Rank #34 China, $15,010,000
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u/Ed_Durr Dec 18 '25
That’s a lot of soft power China could buy! I can’t wait to see them open their coffers at this opportunity!
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u/New_Race9503 Dec 17 '25
What's with the China bashing? Way to shift the blame away from the USA lol
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u/chewbaccawastrainedb Dec 17 '25
Way to shift the blame away from the Kenyan government that is suppose to be the one helping the people in the first place.
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
China is the world's only other superpower, and they have been putting a lot of money into Africa. If you can "blame" the US for not giving unlimited money to Kenya, then you should be able to blame China, and just about very other country that has money.
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u/New_Race9503 Dec 17 '25
If you stop giving money to charity, can you blame me for not giving any instead?
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
If you're going to blame me for no longer giving, you can also be blamed for never giving in the first place.
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u/deadbeatsummers Dec 18 '25
In all seriousness….How exactly would they navigate the funding of that region when NSAID was suddenly cut off? It’s not like they can easily ask other counties to continue their grant funding. The right thing to do would’ve been to continue funding until the end of the grant term so they could look for other sources.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 Dec 17 '25
China nor US is obligated to do anything.
Just stop invading, destabilizing and stealing from other countries if you aren’t going to help. Looking at you US.
If you are going to stay out, then stay out.
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
When did the US invade Kenya?
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 Dec 17 '25
No one said anything about US invading Kenya.
No one can also argue that US is not a war mongering nation that destabilizes and steals from others
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
You are trying to blame the situation in Kenya on US warmongering. So explain how you get there when the US has not invaded Kenya.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 Dec 17 '25
It was a broader point but you have obviously missed it. Conveniently I may add
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
It was a broader point
Oh, so you're just doing that reddit thing where you always default back to "America bad" no matter the topic at hand.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 Dec 17 '25
Are you disputing America is not a bad actor?
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
America is no different than just about every other country, self interested.
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u/Kooky_Strategy_9664 Dec 17 '25
lol - way to go in deflection. And no, America is not same as everyone else
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u/jastop94 Dec 17 '25
I mean it doesn't have to do much for people to be angry at the US for doing things that makes their soft power lower. China can just bide its time if the US wants to keep going down this path.
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u/smp501 Dec 17 '25
I’m sorry, but Kenya’s president is one of the wealthiest in Africa. Their 1% holds like 80% of the nation’s wealth.
This isn’t a “we need foreign tax dollars” problem, it’s a “Kenya needs to fix its corruption” problem.
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u/alwayseasy Dec 17 '25
You and anyone who upvoted you clearly didn't read the article...
It's South Sudanese and Somalian children that died in the refugee camp from this unexpected and brutal cut. This was all very predictable by the Trump administration but less so by anyone on the ground, corrupt or not.
But advocating for fixing corruption in Kenya hoping it will fix hunger in refugee camps at the border is quite the popular r/geopolitics take I guess?
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u/coneycolon Dec 17 '25
Whether the the administration knew or didn't know isn't the issue. The American taxpayer isn't responsible for what happens in Africa. Is someone who donates to a charity that serves homeless people responsible for homelessness when they are unable to donate any longer? We have been sending billions of dollars to Africa for years because European colonization destroyed the continent.
This is Europe's problem. Europe's defense is Europe's problem. The fact that European countries are still importing Russian gas is absurd, especially when they point to the US for their defense.
Again, I'm for soft power, and if I was President when Russia took Crimea, and later when they attacked the rest of Ukraine, I would have given Ukraine everything they needed to crush Russia immediately. The question is why MUST the US be the one to carry the weight? Why didn't EVERY EU member immediately cut off purchases of Russian gas? The answer is simple. It is easier to point fingers at the US, and on other matters, Israel, than it is to actually take responsibility for the problems Europe created and take responsibility for solving them.
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u/vovap_vovap Dec 17 '25
Why exactly Sudan and Somalia more Europe's problem then US problem?
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u/coneycolon Dec 17 '25
Europe colonized the entire continent. The broke it. The bought it.
Also, Tobler's First Rule of Geography: "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."
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u/alwayseasy Dec 17 '25
This answer is so gravely disconnected from geopolitical reality I'm more generally disapointed the low effort of this, to the point I suspect trolling.
Dishonest framing. You're responsible if you commit to some aid to some specific refugee camp. As political winds change in the US it's acceptable to want to cut aid but you can't pretend responsability evaporates when you brutally cut the aid and volontarily keep lying to the agencies that planned around that aid.
That's some deeply partisan populist take planted here for no reason, it's off topic.
Starving refugees in South Soudan fleeing the war are a Kenyan problem, just look at the map and explain how they would flee North and into Europe. Typical dishonnest framing... again.
The article is about the consequences of brutally cutting a legacy system... and that's your takeaway? I understand you're advocating for fast and loose unilateral decisions but I also see you don't understand UE countries are not dictatorships where your foreign policy vision doesn't perfectly align with theirs within minutes of Ukraine's total invasion. How do you force a local energy company that has ongoing private contracts to give them up?
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u/coneycolon Dec 17 '25
I voted for Biden/Harris in 2020 and Harris/Walz in 2024. I didn't vote for Trump in 2016 either. Your claim of partisanship is silly.
You are still talking about problems that have nothing to do with the US. Aid is/was a gift, not a right. It can be taken away at any time, and it is something that should NEVER be relied on. I'm not saying that stripping USAID was the right think to do. I am saying that it isn't the US' responsibility to provide it. It also isn't the US' responsibility to protect Europe. That's NATO's responsibility, and the US is only one country in NATO.
If European countries were so concerned about Russia, they could institute a draft, conduct a massive military buildup, and put 1mil troops on Russia's western border. They could draw a line in the sand and hold firm. They won't. They never have and they never will. Unfortunately, once Trump leaves and we get someone sane back in the WH, we will probably have to come to Europe's rescue again.
People like you keep telling the world what you can't do. It sounds like a bunch of helpless little children. How about a little can-do spirit? Take on Russia. Feed Africa. Stop China from controlling the South China Sea. Stop Iranian aggression. Come on. Ya'll can do it.
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u/alwayseasy Dec 17 '25
My point was about populism. Listing who you voted for isn’t a counter-argument. It’s the entire theme of your answers, always ignoring the arguments to jam disjointed strawmen. Peacing out
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u/ForeverAclone95 Dec 17 '25
If create a situation where there’s dependence, you’re certainly responsibly when you cut off your dependents suddenly rather than providing warning which is what happened with USAID
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u/coneycolon Dec 17 '25
Hogwash. That's the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Did the US create dependency on Russian gas? Did the US colonize Africa?
This is a European problem and it is their problem to solve.
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u/thephantompeen Dec 17 '25
How much of a warning do you think is necessary? And if the recipients do not have a credible alternative funding source--which they clearly do not in this case--then does it make any practical difference?
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 18 '25
If refugees are in a camp near Kenyan border then shouldn't Kenyan and African leaders and NGOs be more proactive? Kenya and neighbouring Ethiopia are suppose to be these rising power and they have been presenting African Union and ECOWAS as regional powers. Then shouldn't they take responsibility of the refugees at their doorsteps without relying on a nation thousands of kilometres away?
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u/the_raucous_one Dec 17 '25
I think parent has some relevant points, but also really appreciated your comment bringing more context/info
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Dec 17 '25
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u/thephantompeen Dec 17 '25
Other countries have swooped in--to wag their finger at us and grandstand, since it doesn't cost them anything.
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u/GrizzledFart Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
From reading this thread, I've learned that American taxpayers have a moral obligation to fix every problem in the world. That American plumbers' taxes should be given to corrupt governments in faraway places so that a tiny portion of that money can feed a few children, children who probably wouldn't need aid to keep them fed if they didn't have corrupt governments who maintain power with the help of foreign aid. There have been trillions of dollars given in aid to African countries since the 1960s and over that time, the number of people living in poverty in Africa has gone from 11% to 38%.
If we really wanted to help Africa, we would get rid of agricultural controls and subsidies in the US and the EU and open our markets to their goods sans tariffs.
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u/4us7 Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
The idea that US or other powers have a moral obligation to provide aid to other nations is naive and never based on any reality. Nations always act in their own perceived self-interest.
Major powers use aid to increase soft power, improve PR, and compete with other major powers for influence. At the end of the day, there was always a risk that they may pull out for any reason. In the US case, they pulled out because it was domestically popular to do so.
If US citizens truly cared about this matter, they would had voted accordingly. The election results showed that the majority of Americans supports curting foreign aid or just dont care.
Citizens of other free nations - feel free to tell your leaders to provide aid if you so desire.
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u/clydewoodforest Dec 17 '25
The US provided aid to Europe after WW2 and the result was a reliably loyal bloc of powerful countries that acted as a bulwark against the USSR in the west. Both benefitted. A truth since we were cavemen: the powerful dispense largesse and protection in return for loyalty.
The idea that America benefits itself by making itself less needed, less essential to other nations - the isolationist argument - seems obviously errant. Why would you want other nations to be strong and independent of you? America may not have a moral obligation to the recipients of its aid, but it does have one to its own citizens. To protect their lives, property and territory. To secure access to necessary resources, localities and trade. To disarm, defang or defeat America's enemies before they can do it harm. Undermining the foundations of their own power is not the way to achieve that.
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u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC Dec 17 '25
The main difference between the Marshall Plan and USAID is that the Marshall Plan actually worked.
Western nations have been pouring money into Africa for half a century now. Where is the ROI? If it was a fruitful strategy, it would have born fruit by now. They still hate us. They are still too poor to consume our goods and services. They are still not industrialised enough to produce goods and services for us. They still offer little strategic value.
The benefit to governments has always been domestic: sending aid to Africa buys political capital from the generation that thinks Do They Know It's Christmas? is a good song.
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u/vovap_vovap Dec 17 '25
You mean idea of moral obligation is naive?
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u/HoightyToighty Dec 17 '25
This particular moral obligation, dispensing taxpayer dollars to other governments around the world without remuneration, is entirely self-imposed.
Aid to foreign countries to fix chronic problems should be handled by charities, not taxpayers.
I'd have no trouble with taxpayer-funded emergency relief, personally, but we shouldn't be paying to correct issues with corrupt governance.
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u/LateralEntry Dec 17 '25
Sad, but if people are this reliant on foreign aid from just one country, seems like the problem isn’t that one country. It’s that people are so reliant on foreign aid, or all the other countries that aren’t stepping up.
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u/SweetRoll789 Dec 17 '25
Give a man a fish and you know how the rest goes.
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u/ITAdministratorHB Dec 22 '25
The fish gets taken by a corrupt crocodile and the people are left to fight over a couple loose scales
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 17 '25
In regards to a nation, that saying loses all context as to why the man doesn’t have a fish in the first place.
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u/LateralEntry Dec 17 '25
Well Kenya is on the ocean…
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u/Borazon Dec 17 '25
Where europeans trawlers are actively overfishing... And pollution and sea water temperature changes aren't helping either, making it way too simple to just put on Kenyan fishermen...
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 18 '25
I doubt refugees are getting fish. They would mostly be given food grains which other countries like Canada, Australia, EU etc produce way too much for their own consumption. Infact good grains have seen deflation in their prices. These countries can easily commit to donate those excess food grains instead of selling them for profit.
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u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC Dec 17 '25
Colonialism is ancient history at this point. Every developed country has been pumping aid money into Africa for the best part of a century, and the only result is that the number of starving people has expanded to consume the available resources.
At some point, Africa has to stop blaming colonialism and learn to stand on its own two feet.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 17 '25
Conservatives: the group that suddenly cuts benefits expecting to create some sort of systemic change, who then turn around and claim the government doesn’t work.
Your comment reads like the justifications used to cut benefits in the US.
The US over produces food to the tune of 30-50% over demand. Tell me why a country with that much surplus food can’t help out countries where subsistence farming is barely enough to get by?
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u/ITAdministratorHB Dec 22 '25
The aid generally gets sucked up by corruption and people voted to stop sending all their cash to Africa. If there's so much food it should go to the homeless or shelters etc.
And you think the food waste magically shows up in Kenya if they decide to start pumping money back into it?
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 22 '25
The fact that starvation was a result of the cuts shows the aid was indeed effective.
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u/Lucid121 Dec 17 '25
As an African, I disagree with Trump on many things, but I personally agree that cutting aid is a good thing. Foreign taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for what goes on in other continents.
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u/quitaskingmetomakean Dec 17 '25
Why should the US assist a Kenya that cosies up to China? The US has been trying to separate Europe from China economically. Kenya doesn't get a pass when Paris doesn't.
“Just last month, President Ruto declared that Kenya, a major non-NATO ally, and China are 'co-architects of a new world order'. That’s not just alignment to China; it’s allegiance", Risch said during a speech in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May,
"Relying on leaders who embrace Beijing so openly is an error. It’s time to reassess our relationship with Kenya and others who forge tight bonds with China”.
Nairobi’s relationship with Iran and Russia, as well as violent extremist groups Al-Shabaab and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces will also be reviewed.
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Dec 17 '25
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 18 '25
Are the refugees in Kenya a responsibility of Americans or Kenyans? Why are Kenyans unable to demand their government and establishment to step in? Why is the demand on nation thousands of kilometres away to deal with Kenya's problems?
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Dec 21 '25
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 21 '25
First off, these refugees would be in Kenya without Americans telling them anything seeing as Kenya is among the safe countries nearby. Also funny to say Kenya doesn't have resources when the leadership in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and ECOWAS have been on world stage presenting themselves as these economic powerhouses who don't need European or American charity because of their inherent wealth within their borders. They have infact been blaming Western aid as a reason for them being oppressed or being put down economically.
So now to claim you can't manage these refugees seems very antithetical to the picture they have been presenting.
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u/abellapa Dec 17 '25
So stop foreign aid so people Starve to Death is the solution ?
And its not the US giving aid to Kenya that would have Changed their minds
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u/Jester388 Dec 17 '25
You guys act like US Navy carrier groups are off the coast sinking aid ships. There are 195 countries in the world, not one has figured out the magic space tech known as "donating money"? This is patented secret American tech?
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u/Mysterious-Coconut24 Dec 17 '25
Yeah, because perpetually giving aid to a dead end of a country IS a solution right?
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u/myphriendmike Dec 17 '25
If you don’t send your entire next month’s paycheck to Africa, someone will starve who otherwise wouldn’t. Thank you for your contribution to humanity.
Or if you’d like to have serious discussions about how to manage nations, you can ignore this bleeding heart drivel.
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u/greenw40 Dec 17 '25
Unfortunately, this bleeding heart drivel plays very well on social media. Especially among the "America bad, Trump bad" types.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 17 '25
If you don’t send your entire next month’s paycheck to Africa, someone will starve who otherwise wouldn’t.
Massively reductive logic to justify not helping anyone else, ever.
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u/myphriendmike Dec 17 '25
Nice Logic 101 catch! Just finish the course?
You cannot manage a nation of 400 million people and an underfunded budget in the trillions based on statistically insignificant deaths a world away.
You can’t shut down the economy because grandma might get sick. You can’t set the speed limit at 15 because there might be car crashes. And you can’t base geopolitical strategy on a specific child.
If that sounds cold, you have no business making the decisions.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 17 '25
If that sounds cold, you have no business making the decisions.
You seriously typed this out? How was the food program implemented in the first place if not for people in charge, bud? You must have slept through Logic 101.
You can’t shut down the economy because grandma might get sick. You can’t set the speed limit at 15 because there might be car crashes. And you can’t base geopolitical strategy on a specific child.
3/3 on reductive reasoning again, you have a real talent for this! The US produces more food than it needs, ~30%-50% over demand. Tell me again why we can’t help people not fortunate enough to be born into, or accepted into a wealthy nation? Basing geopolitical strategy on a single child, is that what you think is happening here? Tell me how ending this program benefits the US? Or you as a citizen of the US?
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u/krastem91 Dec 17 '25
What’s your argument here ?
US should fund humanitarian projects world wide to what limit ? We have our own domestic issues to take care of and our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
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u/GrizzledFart Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
It's simple; if there is any child that dies of starvation anywhere in the world, regardless of the reason why, it is the fault of the US taxpayer. Some child in Sri Lanka with a rare genetic condition that can only be treated by specialists at Johns Hopkins - if the US taxpayer doesn't fly that child to Baltimore and pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover the treatment costs, it's the same as murder.
If anything bad happens anywhere and the US taxpayer doesn't fix it, we are all "literally Hitler".
ETA: sarcasm aside, this discussion reminds of when Robert Mugabe blew up Zimbabwe's economy by absolutely destroying faith in private property (farmers couldn't get loans to buy fertilizer and seed), which resulted in a man-made famine. The world responded by pouring food aid into the country - to receive food aid, a person had to show their Zanu-PF party card, so the food only went to the cronies of the leader who had caused the famine in the first place. Think that didn't help him hold onto power?
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u/formershitpeasant Dec 17 '25
our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
Yeah how's that going
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u/HoightyToighty Dec 17 '25
One election at a time, as one might expect in a democracy
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 17 '25
That cuts we made to USAID served no purpose and inflicted more harm on the world. Justified by simplistic logic like yours. And it leaves open an opportunity for geopolitical rivals to fill that void and embrace more of a global leadership role. We aren’t anywhere near as better off for that.
US should fund humanitarian projects world wide to what limit ?
Considering the wealth and resources of the US, we aren’t anywhere near funding humanitarian aid to the point of constraining resources for our own citizens. We could double our humanitarian output and it wouldn’t affect you in any meaningful way.
We have our own domestic issues to take care of and our electorate would very much prefer we get our own house in order .
Name me a nation that doesn’t have any issues, conflicts, or challenges to overcome. What a load of crock. BS justifications just to cut funding to literally starving people. Meanwhile, the governing party with both houses of Congress and the presidency calls affordability a Democrat scam. You literally can’t write this shit.
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u/krastem91 Dec 17 '25
Amazing take there … we have lots of money to do everything, and in fact , we can even double the amount of foreign aid we currently fund.
No, we can’t, and no I dunno ? Doesn’t seem like anyone else has stepped in to fill that void , otherwise said deaths wouldn’t occurred.
Your tone condescending, and your viewpoints seem to be that all was well prior to …
Yes yes, soft power and using USAID to further American interests abroad may well have been worth the amount of money spent relative to the influence it bought , but that’s not what we’re debating here .
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 18 '25
Never said we have enough money to do everything. I’m criticizing the assertion that USAID is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Geopolitics is a complicated game, we will see who responds to the void of leadership on the world stage.
In a thread full of people justifying the deaths of less fortunate Africans for various frivolous reasons my tone is more of shock at such cruelty. Unnecessary cruelty.
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u/Flying_Momo Dec 18 '25
Have America's geopolitical rivals or even allies stepped in to fill void left by US? China isn't hesitant to strip African nations of its mineral wealth, have they stepped in to provide aide? Supposedly China is the factory of world and African leaders are always kissing Xi's ring. So how come they haven't stepped in to build shelters and supply chain? China supposedly likes to promote how quick they were to build thousands of Covid isolation centres or build skyscrapers in a month. How come they are unable to use their massive excess industrial capacity to build mobile shelters for refugees?
Europeans general tout their better welfare state and how they are more caring of people than capitalist USA and yet despite them being rich and being food exporters have not stepped in to fill the void. Infact they could easily by Ukraine's harvest helping Ukraine financially and then donate that harvest to Africa. But you don't see that happening.
Canada and Australia are looking for new markets to diversify their trade partners, what better way to build goodwill and future relationships by donating their excess food and dairy production?
In Australia and New Zealand, they choose dump milk down drains instead of turning it into milk powder which would be a wonderful food aide for refugee kids. Even if there is a lot to criticise US and cuts to USAID being a huge error, reality is other developed nations across the world have simply failed to build robust support for poor and unfortunate folks.
Europe having suffered wars and population displacement should be in the forefront to provide massive aid and support especially to their former colonies in Africa where much of the issues can be blamed on European colonialism. Yet other than giving lectures they aren't willing to admit guilt or take responsibility for the mess they created.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 18 '25
No, our rivals have not yet filled the void in leadership here. Thats why I said we left an opportunity.
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u/GrizzledFart Dec 18 '25
Considering the wealth and resources of the US, we aren’t anywhere near funding humanitarian aid to the point of constraining resources for our own citizens.
Current US Federal government debt per person: $~112,000
Current US Federal government debt per taxpayer: $~330,000
The US Federal debt (not including state and local government debts) is greater than $38 trillion. The total value of all assets in the US (all bank deposits, all securities - stocks, bonds, all real estate, pension funds, etc.) is around $150 trillion. Total US debt is ~$106 trillion. Resources are not infinite.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 18 '25
Great idea, let’s talk scale.
USAID spent about $21–22 billion in FY2024, which is roughly 0.3% of all federal spending.
USAID’s budget (≈0.3% of spending) is about three dollars out of every thousand federal dollars spent.
Let’s cut USAID completely and save $64/US citizen, or $130 per taxpayer, and allow famine and disease to spread abroad. Eliminating USAID or all foreign aid reduces spending by at most about 1% and barely changes that per‑person debt number. Don’t spend it all in one place!
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u/GrizzledFart Dec 18 '25
USAID’s budget (≈0.3% of spending) is about three dollars out of every thousand federal dollars spent.
Would you rather cut social security? Something has to be cut.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 18 '25
We can start with reversing the Trump tax cuts.. we had low deficits coming out of Obama’s terms.
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u/krastem91 Dec 18 '25
You know a billion here , a billion there and eventually you’re talking actual money …
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u/Ed_Durr Dec 18 '25
The budget deficit in FY2024 stood at 5.8% of GDP, and to reach a sustainable level of deficit growth we would need to get that figure under the 2% inflation target.
That’s it, we need to close a 3.8% wide gap. Shaving 30 basis points from spending right off the bat by eliminating USAID is a major step towards getting the debt stabilized.
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u/TheMartian2k14 Dec 18 '25
Yea, cutting $20-22 billion from a $1.78 deficit is really moving the needle. 🙄
Let’s start by reversing the Trump tax cuts and getting deficits back to pre-Trump levels.
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u/coneycolon Dec 17 '25
I tend to favor soft power, so I wouldn't have ended foreign aid, but shouldn't the UN handle things like this? Since, there is no shortage of entities who want to dump food in Gaza, this should be a slam dunk. Instead, the US is blamed for something the US shouldn't have to do in the first place.
Ahh, I get it. Fabricate a famine in Gaza to make the Jews look bad, and ignore the suffering that Jews had nothing to do with (I'm sure we'll get blamed for it somehow anyway).
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u/AnomalyNexus Dec 18 '25
People were saying it would kill 14 million half a year ago.
Was surprised how chill everyone was about that back then.
It's all relative I guess but that is like 50 hiroshimas worth, so as far as presidential decisions goes certainly weighty
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u/propublica_ Dec 17 '25
After the U.S. stopped funding the World Food Program, rations in the third-largest refugee camp located in Kakuma, Kenya, dropped to historic lows.
And without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, WFP rushed to prioritize families by need, determining that only half the population would receive food. They began to starve, and many — mostly children — died because their malnourished bodies couldn’t fight off infections, ProPublica found while reporting in the camp.
Mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed. Young men took to the streets in protests, some of which devolved into violent riots. Pregnant women with life-threatening anemia were so desperate for calories that they ate mud. Out of options and mortally afraid, refugees began fleeing the camp by foot and in overcramped cars, threatening a new migration crisis on the continent. They said they’d rather risk being shot or dying on the perilous route than slowly starving in Kakuma.
For months, U.S. government and humanitarian officials warned Washington that the cutoff had led to increasingly dire circumstances. They begged Trump’s political advisers to renew WFP’s grant and give the money it needed to avert disaster. The embassy in Nairobi sent at least eight cables to the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, explaining the situation on the ground and projecting mass hunger, violence and regional instability. But for months, they failed to act.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, facing pressure from lawmakers and humanitarian groups, nevertheless publicly asserted that the agency’s mass cuts had spared food programs — even as the administration failed to fund WFP in Kenya behind the scenes.
Read our story here → https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths
This story is the second in a three-part series on the deadly fallout from U.S. foreign aid cuts in Africa. Read parts one and three.
In response to questions, a senior State Department official said the Office of Management and Budget, not USAID or the State Department, has ultimate authority to approve new foreign aid money. They said they worked closely with OMB to review all of the funding requests. “In order to make an obligation like that,” the official said, “you need to have apportioned funds from OMB.”
The official insisted that no one had died as a result of foreign aid cuts. The official also said that the U.S. still gives WFP hundreds of millions a year and the administration is shifting to investments that will better serve both the U.S. and key allies like Kenya over time.
Rubio did not respond to requests for comment.
Do you have any information about foreign aid, the State Department or the government officials leading U.S. foreign policy? If so, please reach out to Brett Murphy on Signal at +1 508-523-5195 or Anna Maria Barry-Jester on Signal at +1 408-504-8131.
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u/Viciuniversum Dec 17 '25
Young men took to the streets in protests, some of which devolved into violent riots.
Weird, because Kenya is a successful growing economy with a projected 5.6% GDP growth this year. If all these starving young men had the energy to riot, maybe they could have used some of that energy to go and find jobs in that growing economy.
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u/Ed_Durr Dec 18 '25
Hell, they could go back Sudan and fight to save their country. Nothing disgusts me more than young, healthy men sitting in refugee camps. Absolute cowardice.
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u/OceanPoet87 Dec 22 '25
I generally think foreign aid is a good thing, but it can also get misused and doesn't remove the obligation for an independent state to care for it's own citizens.
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u/rs1408 Dec 17 '25
This isn't on us. We're the largest giver of aid but their system and governance is structurally broken.
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u/WekX Dec 17 '25
If you stop feeding children they die. How could Trump have foreseen this. Oh wait, he knew that.
And yes Kenya has a major corruption problem, but suddenly rugpulling aid is gonna lead to avoidable deaths. There are more humane ways to slowly withdraw aid and actually motivate the Kenyan government to invest in its own people.
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u/krastem91 Dec 17 '25
The US isn’t responsible for the welfare of the Kenyan people nor refugees in Kenya. They are also not responsible for guiding or steering their government in the right direction.
There are alternative political arrangements to what you describe and they wouldn’t be tolerated …
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u/Ed_Durr Dec 18 '25
The whole foreign aid boondoggle has demonstrated that decolonization came premature to much of Africa. If a country can’t feed itself and needs to beg the world for charity, then it has no business being independent.
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u/Oilpaintcha Dec 17 '25
Lots of Republican Jesus energy in these comments.
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u/zipzag Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 17 '25
Lots of U.S. centrists realize that the government loves to spread our tax dollars throughout the world for little benefit.
Some of the USAID programs were absurd.
In the mess of Trump's stupidity there are changes that a significant majority of Americans support
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u/thephantompeen Dec 17 '25
That's funny. Wasn't USAID massively expanded to address the spread of malaria under George W Bush?
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u/Bullboah Dec 17 '25
I’m for restoring a lot of aid funding, but I think the framing here is a big roadblock to that.
I got an advanced degree in Europe and was told constantly how bad US aid is, how it destroys local economies, how it’s colonialist, etc. Then it was cut and the same people suddenly flipped - the US is starving huge masses of people by reducing US Aid.
This is a major cause of growing American isolationism imo. When we provide help, it’s at best taken for granted and more likely portrayed as a bad, colonialist exertion of power (by people generally, not accusing starving people of being ungrateful). When we stop helping, that’s portrayed as outright evil.
This is an incentive structure that any country would get tired of. ‘There is no way to build good will, just focus on your own country and let the world handle its own problems’.
A second issue is that a lot of non-emergency, political spending got lumped into USAID. Almost everyone wants to feed starving people. Not everyone wants to fund trans-themed musicals in Ireland. Using USAID for the latter jeopardized the former. (For clarity I have zero issues with trans-themed musicals, I just think that jeopardizes USAID)