How ending foreign aid could damage U.S. national security
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Trump Administration is halting all foreign aid and dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, the world’s largest single donor.
And while USAID should be scrutinized for how it uses taxpayer funding, its supporters say destroying a federal agency doesn't '[promote] the national interest.'
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Transcript
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| 0:26.3 | for up to six people, at all protected. |
| 0:32.5 | This is on point. I'm Megachakrabardi. |
| 0:39.5 | The US Agency for International Development is an independent agency of the United States government. |
| 0:43.3 | Created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. |
| 0:49.1 | For 64 years, its mission has been to shore up American national security by fighting starvation, working to end epidemics, and funding education worldwide. |
| 0:56.0 | The presence of the United States as a leading power in the free world is involved in your work directly. |
| 1:05.0 | President Kennedy, speaking to a group of USAID oversees mission directors at the White House, June 8, 1962. |
| 1:14.6 | The people who are opposed to aid should realize that this is a very powerful source of strength for us. |
| 1:24.5 | It permits us to exert influence for the maintenance of freedom. If we did not, |
| 1:31.0 | were not so heavily involved, our voice would not speak with such a bigger. And as we do not want to |
| 1:39.6 | send American troops to a great many areas where freedom may be under attack, we send you. |
| 1:46.0 | And you working with the people in those countries to try to work with them and developing |
| 1:53.0 | the economic thrust of their countries so that they can make a determination that they can |
| 1:59.0 | solve their problems without resorting to totalitarian |
| 2:01.6 | control and becoming part of the bloc. Those last words are key. Resist becoming part of the |
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