The Closure of USAID: Is America Abandoning its Role as a Humanitarian Leader?

Photo via WBHM

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On Monday, February 3, the employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came to their workplace as usual, but in front of the division’s building, they found security tape covering the entrance and later received the order to work from home. Tech billionaire Elon Musk had effectively shut down the USAID department. But what is this office? What is its utility? 

The USAID agency was founded in 1961 by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, ironically the uncle of the current head of the Health Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and is still the biggest and most effective organization for humanitarian aid and development in the poorest parts of the world. In 2023 alone, USAID provided $72 billion in humanitarian aid and, in 2024, accounted for 42% of the funds monitored by the United Nations. 

Throughout its existence, USAID has financed hundreds of programs and policies related to food security, public health, water management, and the fight against corruption. For example, through U.S. global health programs focused on AIDS and malaria, the United States has saved more than 35 million lives worldwide over the past couple of decades. 

And now? Is it all gone? It seems so. The agency has been placed under receivership, with the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, serving as interim head. He told employees to have trust and patience, though this does not seem to indicate any pending return to normalcy. Additionally, the agency’s logos and web content have been removed, leaving room for a condensed page hosted on the State Department website. Musk has labeled this organization as criminal, and U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that it is run by “radical left lunatics,” implying that reinstating the department may be difficult. 

The consequences of this closure could be catastrophic. First of all, this decision will have an immediate impact on thousands of American citizens, considering all the employees of the agency and tens of thousands of others who used to sell basic goods like rice and corn to USAID for distribution to countries in need. However, the most brutal outcomes of this closure will be seen in developing countries that, for decades, have relied on these vital aid programs and can no longer count on them to resolve their health, food, and water issues, potentially leading to future humanitarian crises. 

This closure, along with some “America First” decisions made by Trump during his first days in office regarding the climate emergency and immigration, forces the world to consider a hard truth: other countries can no longer count on U.S. support; they need to find alternatives. Since the Marshall Plan, when the United States provided hundreds of billions of dollars to war-torn European countries to help them rise from the ashes after World War II, this is one of the first times—if not the first time—that nations around the globe feel that America will no longer be a reliable ally ready to leverage its role as an economic superpower to help those in need. 

And now the non-American world faces a crossroads: should they beg the U.S. to reassume its economic leadership in foreign relations, or should they build a sustainable alternative to replace the economic impact of the most powerful country on Earth? What will happen? Only God, and probably Trump, know.

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This article was edited by Mia Kirch and Irene Hao.