“We don’t need no education”!
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I can think of another country who would be happy to step into soft diplomacy/aid.
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A hostile take over of the government, by a bunch of 20 year old bros with no sercurity clearances…… and illegally laying off thousands of government employees with zero process.
It’s completely against the constitution…… but hey, what can congress do about it???
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I encourage everyone to watch this. 
Clip from Planet America on ABC, discussing doge and USAID
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Kellogg is fudging but I think Zelensky is correct. Trying to ascertain the total real figure of US aid, both civilian and military, delivered to Ukraine in the three years of this war, is a complex task (by the figures used, the real-life import is {deliberately} opaque) and would require a full team of accountants/auditors but even as a layman, I can see that^ Trump’s amount is patently false.
^ e.g.
Pentagon reports $6.2 billion accounting error in valuing aid to Ukraine - The Washington Post
PS My assertations are based on my own research. If you disagree, please feel free to DM me with your evaluation (with references).
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4 out of 5 ain’t bad.
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The Congressional Research Service is the source of USAID to Ukraine and other countries.
Fake news 
/s
Opinion trumps facts every time, as evidenced by posters refusing to accept facts from investigations of UNRWA
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If Dutton uses the Trump playbook there is no way he’s winning this election. I’d like to think the average Australian would be really concerned with what’s going on at the moment.
Will be interested to talk to my left leaning family who during the Christmas break I discovered were happy Trump won, mostly over the Middle East issue. It’s actually crazy and I can’t believe anyone would trust Musk or Trump with no checks or balances.
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There are some posters here, even some usually reasonable but apparently infected with a degree of Musk adoration that blinkers them, that are still playing the ‘guess we’ll see how it pans out’ card with regard to the unconstitutional removal of thousands of staff and halting of services.
Here’s some of the ‘see’ that’s already panning out. It’s not opinion, it’s what’s happening
“ An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or above could not have caused more carnage. Recent floods in Asia and droughts in Africa have been catastrophic, yet they have inflicted less damage and affected fewer people than the sudden withdrawal of billions of dollars of US aid from the world’s most volatile hotspots and its most vulnerable people. Coming alongside President Trump’s plan for a US takeover of Gaza, the US administration’s resolve to shut down its international aid agency sends a clear message that the era when American leaders valued their soft power is coming to an end.
But while the Gaza plan is as yet only on the drawing board, USAid cuts – which will see funding slashed and just 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide retained, according to the New York Times - have already begun to bite this week. We have seen the halting of landmine-clearing work in Asia, support for war veterans and independent media in Ukraine, and assistance for Rohingya refugees on the border of Bangladesh. This week, drug deliveries to fight the current mpox and Ebola outbreaks in Africa have been stopped, life-saving food lies rotting at African ports, and even initiatives targeting trafficking of drugs like fentanyl have been cut back. One of the world’s most respected charities, Brac, says that the 90-day blanket ban on helping vulnerable people is depriving 3.5 million people of vital services.
One critical programme has been granted a limited waiver. Pepfar, created by Republican president George W Bush, offers antiretroviral prescriptions to 20 million people around the world to combat HIV and Aids. Its activities escaped the ban only after warnings that a 90-day stoppage could lead to 136,000 babies acquiring HIV. But it has still been blocked from organising cervical cancer screening, treating malaria, tuberculosis and polio, assisting maternal and child health, and efforts to curtail outbreaks of Ebola, Marburg and mpox.
Not only does the stop-work edict mean that, in a matter of days, the US has destroyed the work of decades building up goodwill around the world, but Trump’s claim that America has been over-generous is exposed as yet another exaggeration. Norway tops the list as biggest donor of official development assistance (ODA) as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) at 1.09%; Britain is at just over 0.5%, albeit down from the UN target of 0.7%; but the US is near the bottom of the advanced economies at 0.24% – alongside Slovenia and the Czech Republic. It is simply the size of the US economy – 26% of world output – that means that the 0.24% adds up to more aid than any other country. The US provided $66bn in 2023, making USAid a leader in global humanitarian aid, education and health, not least in addressing HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
On Sunday night, Trump told reporters that USAid had been “run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out”. “I don’t want my dollars going towards this crap,” his press spokesperson added, with one of the president’s chief advisers Elon Musk calling the agency a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America”. “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair,” he said. “We’re shutting it down.”
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Of all the areas they could legitimately cut some excess they’ve gone after this, a drop of good in the poison ocean. I call that evil.
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If only Trump/Musk really hated guns?
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I’m sure they’ll get to defence any moment now to review the billions, possibly trillions they spend.
First, let’s get the thousands and millions that USAID spend sorted.
Low hanging fruit first and all that.
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Plays well to idiots. Education is on the board also, so a new generation of nationalistic, religion indoctrinated idiots in the incubator.
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although not surprising , that is terrifying . ther is zero doubt now that this regime will never be removed from power unless by force. the world is in big trouble
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as that guy said , this is a pure vendetta being executed by trump.
he’s probably had all these crazy ideas brewing in his mind sonce he lost the last election that he was convinced was stolen so now he’s going after everything to get even .
this USAID thing showed exactly how insane he has become , and the scariest part is we are less than a month in .
surely now it’s obvious his mental capacity is on display for ALL to see . you would think oh well he will get cleaned up at the mid terms , but this control and secrecy he has already done of goverment systems now probably assures he will start to win future elections with thumping majorities
Honestly not sure whether this is satire
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IDK how influential it’s been, but the Dissent Channel in the US civil service is a mechanism that allows for challenges to policies to be aired on condition of anonymity, as a counter to thinking inside the beltway. It’s a model that others could adopt to give effect to the principle of serving the government of the day without fear or favour.
But if DOGE can access the contributors to the Channel, it will cease. Civil servants that implement, but don’t blindly support Republican policies, are targeted.
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