Samantha Power, former US Ambassador to UN: Closing USAID was soft power suicide
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“The destruction of USAID is not only one of the cruellest acts that I've seen in my career, but of course also one of the dumbest.”
Caitriona Perry speaks to Samantha Power, the former American ambassador to the United Nations. She went on to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development until January 2025 when Donald Trump came to power. President Trump later closed USAID down.
She is scathing about his decision, describing it as a “soft power suicide” which will lead to the avoidable deaths of millions of people around the world. Ambassador Power also warns of gridlock in the United Nations, thanks to the use of veto powers by permanent members of the Security Council.
Thank you to Caitriona Perry and Abby Godard for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Nigel Casey, the UK ambassador to Russia, and the Colombian President Gustavo Petro. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Caitriona Perry Producers: Abby Godard and Lucy Sheppard Editors: Damon Rose and Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Samantha Power Credit: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello, I'm Katrina Perry, BBC News Chief presenter, and this is the interview from the BBC World Service, the best conversations coming out of the BBC, people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:23.3 | If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. |
| 0:27.9 | You have never seen a people so united. |
| 0:31.5 | Do not make that boat crossing. |
| 0:33.0 | Do not make that journey. |
| 0:34.2 | Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. |
| 0:38.3 | We're more popular than populism. |
| 0:41.2 | For this interview, I met Samantha Power, former American ambassador to the United Nations, |
| 0:46.8 | who led the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, until January 2025. |
| 0:58.5 | Her tenure there ended with the inauguration of President Trump. |
| 1:06.5 | Shortly after, funding for USAID was drastically reduced and the agency was effectively closed down, with any remaining projects transferred to the U.S. State Department. |
| 1:16.0 | You're going to hear her thoughts on the challenges facing the United Nations in today's shifting world order, |
| 1:19.0 | as well as her devastating take on the decision to close USAID. |
| 1:24.6 | It's referred to widely as soft power suicide. |
| 1:27.2 | It's just an enormous own goal for the United |
| 1:32.6 | States's credibility. And again, now with the Trump administration bombing here and there and with |
| 1:37.1 | the tariffs and threatening Greenland and plenty of other soft power suicide and hard power blunders afoot. |
| 1:46.3 | So maybe the destruction of the USA now kind of recedes in people's memory. |
| 1:51.0 | There's a lot going on. |
| 1:52.1 | But this is lasting because the capillaries of this people-to-people assistance |
| 1:57.9 | went spanned countries, |
... |
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