Rally in Support of U.S. Foreign Aid, Wednesday, February 5.

Retired and former USAID and State colleagues, implementing partners, and friends are organizing to protest at the Capitol on Wednesday, February 5, at 11:30 am. We will meet behind the Capitol on the sidewalk near the visitor’s entrance.

We want to highlight the devastating impact of the administration’s actions on aid recipients and of Congress relinquishing their responsibilities and power to Trump, as well as the damage of the psychological warfare being inflicted on Federal employees.

Related reading:

Meeks, Shaheen, Frankel, Schatz Demand Immediate Action to Address Trump Administration Efforts to Undermine American Soft Power, press release from the House Foreign Affairs Committee | January 31, 2025.

The Path Forward: A Letter to My Constituents, by Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-8) | February 1, 2025.

68 Comments

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    • He’s allowing it in this country already. Hitler times 2! They are collectively agreeing to commit genocide of the have nots! It’s only just begun! And it’s going global 😠

  • 1% to foreign aid…. 15% to military spending. They want to save money by cutting the 1% yet increase military by several %. The math doesn’t add up. President Musk and Puppet Trump have to go.

  • We need to fight back on what is happening. Protesting not violence. We need to go to the courts for help. Republicans need to stand up against what is happening. Stop thinking about yourselves and get some backbone. I know there are members of the GOP that won’t stand up but I believe there are others that will. Help us save our democracy!!

    • If you simply google ‘condoms for gaza fact check’ you will learn nothing supports that claim. Jist believe fox news? It’s not a good strategy. Always fact check trump and his state media. They lie a lot. Thats why fox paid billions for lying for him

    • Thank you for that ….These people are brainwashed for thr democrats it’s all going to be exposed .USAID is the start of stopping theft in our government

  • USAID supports veterans, military, social security and other programs in the USA. It’s not just for foreign aid. We need to protect our country.

  • I do not recall Musk on the ballot. I do not recall a ballot amendment authorizing Congress to abdicate on their Article 1 fiduciary duty. I do not recall F Jimmy Carter flags along school routes in 1980. The 1st Amendment is a right, and all rights should be treated responsibly. I do not recall that being right about something means that being mean is in order. At least be well-intending in your beliefs.

  • I say that it is time for the democrats to start acting violent and deadly like the republicans and MAGAMaggots!!!!! Stop acting nice and protesting peacefully. Use your 2A like Kyle Rittenhouse. Destroy Gov property. No more nice guys.

  • To date, there are only two contagious diseases that have been globally eradicated, smallpox in humans and rinderpest in cattle, both done with assistance from the U.S.A.I.D. Both of these diseases were capable of creating widespread epidemics and, in the past, had done so. I should know, as I led the effort to develop a heat-stable rinderpest vaccine that was used to quelch the last threatening remnants of the virus in some of Africa’s most remote regions. AID currently has projects to monitor for new contagious disease agents like covidvirus. To think that we don’t benefit from foreign aid is simply to be uninformed.

  • To date, there are only two contagious diseases that have been globally eradicated, smallpox in humans and rinderpest in cattle, both done with assistance from the U.S.A.I.D. Both of these diseases were capable of creating widespread epidemics and, in the past, had done so. I should know, as I led the effort to develop a heat-stable rinderpest vaccine that was used to quelch the last threatening remnants of the virus in some of Africa’s most remote regions. AID currently has projects to monitor for new contagious disease agents like the virus of covid-19. To think that we don’t benefit from foreign aid is simply to be uninformed.

  • Trump and Musk have just begun their takeover of our government in violation of our laws and our Constitution. We are in a crisis as deep as January 6.

    With regard to USAID, it’s vital we use our financial power for good in the world to save and improve lives as well as build and support allies.

    We are not alone on this planet. We have rivals and enemies. That’s why we have alliances, such as NATO.

    This agency has helped the people suffering from war and oppression. The people of Ukraine, for instance.

    As,well, China and Russia want us to leave the world stage to them. They want to control resources and lives. Trump and Musk are doing their bidding, whether they knows it or not. The scary thing is, I think they know it.

    I’ll be there at the rally. As Benjamin Franklin said, “we must all hang together or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.”

  • I have first hand experience with USAID programs in Africa. Years ago as a Peace Corp volunteer I worked with local people to build schools in isolated villages. These places were among the poorest of the poor in West Africa. People typically living on about $1 per day. They had one room schools of mud and thatch if they existed at all. We built permanent schools together. The village provided the labor and a mason. Peace Corp provided coordination, USAID provided money for cement, wood framing, rebar, roofing, the Dutch volunteer service provided food to support the effort on community work days. This effort, and USAID’s contributions, built both schools for thousands of children eager to learn, and good will toward the USA. For those who care, this country, Benin, was a communist leaning dictatorship at the time. It eventually became one of the most stable democracies in Africa. I’d don’t think it is too far a stretch to believe that the schools we built contributed at least in a small way to that change. Challenges remain, but this is a verifiable example of how USAID did good, improved our reputation as a country, and furthered our international goal of promoting democracy. Benin is not a powerful country by itself but it holds a key positions on the continent with ties to both Nigeria and Ghana. It is a key member of ECOWAS the Economic Community for West African States. Simple small actions with even minimal assistance from USAID have had significant and lasting impacts that protect and promote US interests while showing the people of the world that we also care about them on a strictly human level. The actions of Musk and Trump, in abruptly disbanding USAID are made, as always, for their own political and financial benefit. The long term impact will be disastrous to our international influence and the short term impact will simply be hundreds of thousands of lost and stunted lives world wide.

  • Do your study before you speak I’ll against what Trump is doing USAID has been taken trillions for nothing dealing with helping other countries it’s a big scam going on just using the name to look good on paper….I’m sure they will be exposing all the corruption don’t let USAID being stopped upset u .Americans are sick of all the corruption from all the government offices…

    • Maybe you should do your study. Exactly how much, where, and by whom were these thefts perpetrated. Before the 1960s, aid given around the world was very loosely monitored, and there probably were abuses. Since then, AID has had a rigorous auditing and project reporting systems and very little money has been wasted. The debate within AID is constant and serious regarding the effectiveness of our support. When I worked in Kenya in the 1970s the per capita GDP was about $180/year; thanks to foreign assistance from many countries since then, the GDP has risen to about $2,000/yr. BTW, ill and I’ll are 2 different words, and your made-up story of massive corruption is repeated ad infinitum by foes of foreign aid.

  • When I was a USAID contractor overseas, I was required by USAID regulations to source services, goods and supplies from US businesses as much as possible. Most of the salaries we paid were through US banks. Most of the money in my budget never left the US. My project had very little leeway for spending money locally. We could buy gasoline for the two 10-year-old vehicles the project inherited from the USAID motorpool, and pay mechanics to keep them running, things like that. About the only significant project money that went into the local economy were rent payments to house the project’s foreign personnel. When I finished, the project was audited by a major US auditing firm. About the only thing the auditor questioned arose from a salary dispute concerning some of the expert personnel I employed, and that issue was easily resolved – there was no corruption, no criminal spending, as verified by a leading US auditor.

  • The dismantling of foreign aid sends an intentional message “we do not care about human life, or about relieving human suffering“
    It is a direct assault on human life and intends to demoralize and create disenfranchisement of the average American citizen.

  • Late yesterday (Feb 6), Public Citizen sued Donald Trump for shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)..

    The Constitution is clear — Congress created USAID and only Congress can dismantle it. Not MAGA sycophant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Not President Donald Trump. And definitely not the unelected Elon Musk.

    Public Citizen is representing the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees in this case, with co-counsel at Democracy Forward.

    Our lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring Trump, and State Department or Treasury Department officials, from taking any action to dissolve USAID absent congressional authorization. We are also seeking a temporary restraining order — mandating a reversal of the Trump regime’s unlawful actions and a halt to any further steps to dissolve USAID — until the court has resolved our suit.

    By the way, we have now filed five lawsuits against the Trump regime (and there are more to come). Here are the other four:

    1. We’ve told you about the suit we filed, within moments of Trump being sworn in, challenging the secrecy and structure of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that is being run by Elon Musk.

    2. We also sued over the removal from publicly accessible government websites of a broad range of health-related data and other information used by health professionals to diagnose and treat patients.

    3. We’ve been emailing you about the suit we filed earlier this week to block the illegal invasion of privacy being carried out by “DOGE” at the U.S. Treasury Department.

    4. And, just this morning, we filed a lawsuit to block “DOGE” from improperly accessing private information at the Department of Education.

    • If the attempt to dismantle USAID is not stopped, there may be few left to oppose them when they come for Peace Corps. In particular, the various Executive Orders have shown a blatant disregard for laws that Congress passed to protect Agencies from executive wrath. If courts do not demand the Executive Orders follow the law, dismantling the Peace Corps will be all too easy.

      In opposing the Executive Orders dismantling USAID, we are demanding that courts apply the laws that already exist. Those laws protect the Peace Corps also. We need to get our fingers in the dike now. Once the rule of law breaks, it will be too late.

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