Podcast: God squad: Let friendship redeem the republic

“Radical leftists, grifters, and lunatics” are the labels that Elon Musk uses to describe people who worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or anyone who dares to speak up in favor of an agency that for over sixty years has embodied the democratic values this country aspires to live by. Most Americans, indeed, have no clue what foreign aid is, which makes it easy for this Administration to weaponize it and demonize USAID’s work.

For the record, I worked at USAID for three years as a senior communications advisor in the Bureau for Global Health. I was hired as a contractor under the Obama Administration and stayed for about 18 months into the first Trump Administration. Before joining USAID, I worked with organizations that implemented USAID’s programs and delivered humanitarian assistance in far-flung places. For seven years, I lived in Nairobi, Kenya, where I saw first-hand the impact of U.S. foreign assistance programs.