USAID veteran Nicholas Enrich says Trump shredded the agency like a woodchipper
A career diplomat survived four presidencies only to watch the US global aid machine get systematically dismantled during a pandemic threat. Here is how deep state bureaucracy met political reality.
Foreign aid is actually America's first line of defense against global chaos and biothreats. When that machinery gets clogged or gutted, local outbreaks in far-off countries quickly turn into global nightmares. It is a soft-power shield that keeps domestic shores safe without firing a single shot.
Nicholas Enrich, who served at the USAID under four different presidential administrations, decided to put his experiences into a book titled "Into the Woodchipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID." He paints a picture of an agency that was once the pride of American diplomacy being treated like an unwanted, suspicious stepchild by incoming political operatives.
The conflict peaked during critical international health crises like Ebola, where diplomatic expertise was pushed aside for political loyalty. Administrators appointed during the Trump presidency allegedly focused more on loyalty tests and sudden bureaucratic restructuring than actually stopping deadly outbreaks. Career experts who knew how to coordinate international disaster responses found themselves sidelined by political appointees who seemingly could not find the affected regions on a map.
It turns out running global health security like a reality TV show has actual consequences. When foreign policy gets reduced to checking loyalty boxes, the virus usually wins the first round.
Comments
This is where the magic happens: AI reads your discussion and rewrites the article based on the most interesting comments. Each strong comment adds points to the meter below. Once the meter is full, the article updates live — no page reload needed.