Speaking of Human Rights
What Trump and DOGE hath wrought.
For anyone who thinks that the DOGE cuts to foreign aid are just culling “fraud and waste” and that they do not matter, I give you this piece from The Atlantic: The Crisis of American Leadership Reaches an Empty Desert.
In Tiné, a barren desert town in eastern Chad, the first humanitarian crisis of the post-American world is now unfolding. Thousands of people fleeing the civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region have recently arrived there after enduring long journeys in relentless, 100-degree heat. Many have nothing—they report being beaten, robbed, or raped along the way—and almost nothing awaits them in Tiné. Due in part to the Trump administration’s devastating cuts to foreign aid, only a skeleton staff of international humanitarian workers are on hand to receive them. There are shortages of food, water, medicine, and shelter in Tiné, and few resources to move people anywhere else.
[…]
In theory, the Trump administration still supports emergency humanitarian aid. But in practice, the cuts to logistics and personnel, the abrupt changes to payments, and the associated chaos have hampered all of the international humanitarian organizations working in Tiné and everywhere else. The Chadian Red Cross lacks transport for the wounded. The World Food Program’s supplies are unreliable because support systems have been cut. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is cutting staff due to budget constraints. Jean-Paul Habamungu Samvura, who represents UNHCR in eastern Chad, said that in his 20-year career, he could not recall refugees ever being offered so little.
“Our big donor is the U.S.,” Samvura said. But in February, UNHCR was instructed to alter its services. “Things we are used to seeing as lifesaving activity, like providing shelter, are no longer considered lifesaving activity,” he explained. That leaves his team with an unsolvable problem: “Where to put people at least to give them a bit of shading.” Some of his staff have been told that their jobs will end as soon as June, but the crisis will not end in June.
[…]
This is a dramatic moment in a devastating war. More people have been displaced by violence in Sudan than in Ukraine and Gaza combined. Statements about Sudan are regularly made at the UN and in other international forums. And yet the people in these photographs seem to have been abandoned in an empty landscape. As the United States withdraws and international institutions decay, their ordeal may be a harbinger of what is to come.
But, you know, I am sure all that savings will be put to good use.
Wait, what?
- Via the NYT: Military Parade in Capital on Trump’s Birthday Could Cost $45 Million, Officials Say.
- Via NBC News: Turning Qatari 747 into Air Force One could cost $1 billion and take years, experts say.
- Via the AP: Homeland Security looks to buy a new $50M jet for secretary and Coast Guard officials.
Well, at least we know where the administration’s values are.
The world’s richest man is killing the world’s neediest people.
@Daryl: Gross, isn’t it?
On that note, this opinion piece from the New York times is also a banger:
Musk is as repulsive as Trump. I never thought that was possible.
@Steven L. Taylor:
What’s really gross is that the Cult thinks he is doing the lords work. The way the fawn over him on social media is gross.
Bridging off a discussion from yesterday, I can understand the position that the United States is under no responsibility to deliver foreign aid and therefore we can stop it for budget saving reasons.
And I also firmly believe that if you are of that position then you also need to be ready to take responsibility for affirmatively enabling the many preventable deaths that will be caused by that decision.
And yes, asking “why are other countries not filling in the gap?” is equally understandable. And that question still doesn’t excuse or eliminate the fact that you are supporting policies that are killing people abroad.
BTW, there’s also a subset of the argument that “instead of investing in foreign aid, we should be using that to help needy people in the US.” Again, while I don’t necessarily agree with that position, I am somewhat sympathetic to it. However, it’s critical to note that THAT IS NOT HAPPENING and the most recent version of the “Big Beautiful Budget Bill” is systematically cutting benefits and making them harder to access in the name of tax cuts for the well-to-do and depending on our budget deficit.
It’s very simple. the nazi in chief doesn’t profit off these people, so they may as well die.
DOGE asserted SS fraud was 40%. Turns out the fraud is 0.018%. So close.
Since everything about this administration is entirely objective, obviously billionaires will be voluntarily adjusting their requested tax cut downward by 100*[1 – (.018/40)] %.
@Gavin:
Do you have a link for that data? Definitely worth having/holding onto.
Thanks.
Meanwhile, DOGE helps the government lose half a trillion dollars a year…
The IRS expects $500 billion less tax revenue, due in large part to DOGE’s cutting of “the agency’s compliance efforts, auditing tax cheats and collecting unpaid tax dollars, the New York Times reports. Other fired workers were involved in modernizing IRS technology or helping taxpayers by telephone, activities that directly or indirectly generated revenue.”
@Kathy: I think it’s a tad more complex than this – to wit: He’s happy to profit off of those people if they can find a way for him to wet his beak as the US provides aid.
It’s the same thing with tariffs. It’s the same thing with FEMA. It’s the same thing with his first impeachment over Ukraine aid.
Trump has never done the right thing simply because it’s the right thing.
Trump is all about Trump, and he is singularly committed to that cause.
@Daryl:
Here you go: https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/doge-social-security-fraud/
@Tony W:
Agreed.
And to my point, mostly in the MBS post, but it fits here as well, he never does the wrong thing (e.g., being nice to MBS) for the right reason, either (i.e., for the geopolitical positioning of the US). He does the wrong thing because it makes him feel good or enriches him in some way.