By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s top aide Susie Wiles was “aghast” over the rapid dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, she told Vanity Fair magazine, criticizing the abrupt halting of billions of dollars in assistance including life-saving humanitarian aid.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Wiles, the White House chief of staff, said it was “horrifying to others” how billionaire Elon Musk, who operated as a Trump aide in the initial months of the administration and was tasked with shrinking the federal government, dismantled USAID, Washington’s premier humanitarian aid agency.
She also praised USAID’s work — an opinion at odds with that of the Republican president, who has called the agency “really corrupt,” and the White House which has set up a web page that shares examples of what it calls USAID’s “waste and abuse” without providing evidence.
“I was initially aghast … Because I think anybody that pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work,” Vanity Fair quoted her as saying.
After the article’s publication, Wiles criticized it in a social media post on Tuesday as a “hit piece” and pushed back against the framing of the interview, saying significant context was left out.
The White House did not immediately respond to a list of follow-up questions on Wiles’ comments.
On January 20, the day Trump was sworn in, he ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid to review if the funding was being allocated to causes aligned with his “America First” policy. Billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency swiftly moved to dismantle the agency as well as other parts of the federal government, firing tens of thousands of people and suspending thousands of government-funded grants.
“But he (Musk) decided that it was a better approach to shut it down, fire everybody, shut them out, and then go rebuild. Not the way I would do it,” Wiles told Vanity Fair.
The executive order, and ensuing stop-work orders, threw USAID into turmoil, halting the agency’s operations around the world, jeopardizing the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and severely disrupting global humanitarian relief efforts.
The administration said at the time it would provide waivers to ensure life-saving aid would not be slashed. But aid workers have said many programs providing support for the world’s poorest have either not been restored or are facing disruptions that are life-threatening for the communities they serve.
For example in Kenya, the halt of USAID funding interrupted the global supply of therapeutic food for severely malnourished children. Even as the funding was restored in March, Reuters journalists in October saw shortages in health clinics they visited in the northwestern part of the country.
Aid groups, including Mercy Corps and Action Against Hunger have reported a handful of deaths among malnourished children whose parents were unable to access treatment in Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria when U.S.-funded programs were halted.
Trump has said the U.S. pays disproportionately for foreign aid, and he wants other countries to assume more of the burden. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have also scaled back aid in recent years to focus on domestic priorities.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly denied anyone died as a result of the U.S. cuts.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
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