The flurry of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump since he took office for the second time will have unintended consequences – and maybe some intended consequences that many Americans – as well as our allies in other countries – aren’t going to like.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was shut down by President Trump and Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Food for Peace, a 70-year-old foreign food aid program under USAID that uses American agricultural surpluses for foreign aid, has been shuttered. The program has fed 4 billion people in more than 150 countries.
The shutdown raised concerns about the potential loss of export markets and the impact on global food security. Kansas farmers, the leading producers of sorghum (milo) often purchased for Food for Peace, are left with a surplus and no buyer.
Kansas grain elevators could be left without a market for last year’s sorghum crop. Kim Barnes, CEO of the Pawnee County Co-op Association in Larned, told reporters, “Right now, there’s no export market for it, and there’s no domestic market.”
The situation appears to have quickly improved. On Tuesday, U.S. Representative Tracy Mann (KS-01) and others introduced legislation to move the administration of the Food for Peace program from USAID to the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Mann praised the president even as he praised Food for Peace.
“I will continue to work with the Trump Administration to uproot wasteful spending while ensuring America can continue to be the beacon of hope and freedom we are to the rest of the world.”
Musk and Trump, along with the president’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and the website whitehouse.gov, sometimes lie about the wasteful spending going on, especially when it comes to foreign aid. It’s not true that $50 million was designated by the U.S. to buy condoms for Hamas in Gaza.
Also: USAID did NOT spend $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Columbia or $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. Those are real things that received funds from the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs but they have nothing to do with USAID.
When Musk was confronted in the Oval Office on the false claim of $50 million sent to Gaza for condoms, he said, “Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
The words “mistakes were made” send a chill down one’s spine, akin to “we had to shoot.”
“Mistakes were made” is the king of non-apologies – sometimes for malicious, intentional blunders with fatal consequences.
Exaggerations and false claims sound more like lies than mistakes.
Musk thinks the United States needs to delete entire agencies to become more efficient. In reality, the president’s rush to sign initiatives crafted by the authors of Project 2025 is a “mistake” – one that will lead to disaster.
