Inside Trump’s killing of USAID and where we stand now: ‘A farce to stroke Elon Musk’s ego’

Nicholas Enrich, who joined USAID in 2013 and briefly led its Global Health Bureau in 2025, says the dismantling of the agency has produced widespread preventable harm and saved nothing. Enrich, now the author of a book on the episode, told The Independent he was put in charge of restarting health programs after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a waiver to the aid freeze, but found the effort blocked by DOGE, political appointees and administration restrictions. By late February he concluded the restart was a sham, even as Elon Musk and Rubio publicly claimed programs were running again. He was placed on administrative leave right after circulating a memo warning of deaths; his contract ended when USAID closed in July.

The Independent cites an Ebola outbreak that has killed almost 5,000 people, a $2.1 billion drop in HIV funding, and maternal and newborn deaths in several regions. One estimate puts first-year deaths from the cuts at 500,000 to 700,000, though Rubio and the State Department deny the cuts directly killed anyone. Enrich says the move was not about savings or efficiency, since no money was saved.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →