As most staff members at the U.S. Agency for International Development marked their final day with the agency, they got thanks from two presidents and a rock star.
The Trump administration has eliminated the bulk of U.S. foreign assistance programming, saying that such work fails to advance the American national interest. Top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the former Trump adviser Elon Musk, worked to dismantle U.S.A.I.D. arguing that its staff was insubordinate.
But in recorded messages shared with employees during a videoconference on Monday, former presidents painted a very different picture of the agency and its place in American foreign policy.
“You’ve shown the great strength of America through your work, and that is our good heart,” former President George W. Bush told staff in a video message. The video, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, was reported earlier by The Associated Press.
Mr. Bush cited the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which he initiated, and which has been estimated to have saved 25 million lives. That program’s future, like much of U.S. foreign aid, is unclear.
“Is it in our interest that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is,” Mr. Bush said. “On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your hard work, and God bless you.”
Former President Barack Obama, in a separate message, said the decision to dismantle U.S.A.I.D. would “go down as a colossal mistake.”
“Ending your presence and your programs out in the world hurts the most vulnerable, and it hurts the United States,” Mr. Obama said, citing the agency’s efforts to prevent disease, fight drought and build schools.
“To many people around the world, U.S.A.I.D. is the United States,” Mr. Obama added. He encouraged the agency’s staff to take pride in their work, even as they looked for new jobs.
Bono, the U2 frontman and longtime advocate for developing countries, offered a lyrical send-off in a video of his own.
“They called you crooks — when you were the best of us, there for the rest of us,” he said. “And don’t think any less of us, when politics makes a mess of us.”
“It’s not left-wing rhetoric to feed the hungry, heal the sick,” Bono added. “If this isn’t murder, I don’t know what is.”
Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter covering how President Trump is transforming the federal government.
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