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What Next | DOGE V. USAID

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why did the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which gives money to humanitarian causes around the world and accounts for roughly half of one percent of the federal budget, end up in DOGE’s crosshairs? And is its abrupt closure legal?   Guests: Franco Ordoñez, White House Correspondent for NPR. Fred Kaplan, Slate’s war stories correspondent. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:07.4

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0:25.6

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0:26.4

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0:29.7

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0:39.4

I called up NPR's Franco Ordonez because I had a question.

0:46.3

Does USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, still exist?

0:50.1

And you know what? His tone will tell you everything.

0:55.9

I mean, I think in some former fashion, it does kind of exist.

1:00.6

Sounds like we don't know.

1:03.8

I think that's very, I think that's very reasonable way to put it.

1:07.0

I mean, there's so much that still has to shake out.

1:14.9

USAID gives money to humanitarian efforts around the world, hospitals in Gaza, soup kitchens in Sudan. And over the past week, I've watched from afar as Elon Musk and Donald Trump

1:20.9

tried dismantling this agency, piece by piece. First, it was hit with a foreign aid funding freeze.

1:30.6

Then that freeze was partially lifted, but soon there were reports that one employee

1:35.6

after another was getting put on administrative leave.

1:39.7

Over the weekend, there were reports that representatives from Musk's so-called Department of Government

1:45.2

Efficiency, you know, Doge, had accessed headquarters. And then the agency was summarily scrubbed

1:53.6

from the internet. You've been in touch, I'm sure, with people who are USAID employees, at least for now, are they going into the office?

...

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