Barack Obama, George Bush slam Trump over USAID shutdown and global health fallout
The former Presidents spoke in recorded messages played for USAID staff on Monday (June 30), the agency's final day as an independent organisation after six decades of operation.
A new Lancet study estimated the sweeping cuts could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including over 4 million children.
'Unless the abrupt funding cuts announced and implemented in the first half of 2025 are reversed, a staggering number of avoidable deaths could occur by 2030,' the researchers concluded.
They warned the impact on lower-income nations would be comparable to a 'global pandemic or a major armed conflict.'
Francisco Saúte, director of Mozambique's Manhiça Health Research Centre and a study co-author, said: 'Cutting this funding now not only puts lives at risk – it also undermines critical infrastructure that has taken decades to build.'
USAID was established in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy and had long enjoyed bipartisan support. But the Trump administration made it a target, with Trump branding it 'radical left lunatics' and 'tremendous fraud,' while Elon Musk called it 'a criminal organisation.'
In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of USAID programs were canceled, and the agency would be folded into a new office under the State Department called 'America First.'
Obama's remarks were unequivocal: 'Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.'
He credited USAID for saving lives, spurring economic development, and creating new US trade partners.
'Sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realise how much you are needed,' he added. 'Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come.'
George W. Bush focused on the cuts to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program credited with saving over 25 million lives since its creation.
'Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.'
He thanked USAID staff: 'You've showed the great strength of America through your work – and that is your good heart.'
PEPFAR funding had been set to support the rollout of long-acting HIV prevention drugs in developing countries later this year, but advocates now fear those plans are in jeopardy.
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