George W. Bush has kept his feelings about Donald Trump’s policies almost completely to himself over the past decade, offering little more than a hushed “that was some weird shit” at the 2017 inauguration. But the Associated Press got their hands on footage from a recent private videoconference call where he joined Barack Obama and Bono in addressing the United States Agency for International Development workers who lost their jobs thanks to Trumps’s decision to dismantle the organization, lay off much of the staff, and fold what remains into the State Department.
“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work – and that is your good heart,’’ Bush told USAID staffers. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”
Obama echoed the sentiment. “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,” he said. “Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world…sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed.”
Elon Musk has referred to USAID as a “criminal organization,” and Trump said it was run by “radical left lunatics.”
Bono, who successfully lobbied Bush throughout his presidency to provide Africa with food, medicine, and debt relief, also appeared in the video. According to the AP, he was introduced as a “surprise guest” and appeared in sunglasses and a hat, and referred to the USAID staffers as “secret agents of international development.” He then read a poem about the agency, referencing the children who will die of malnutrition due to Trump’s maneuver. (A study warned that 300,000 people worldwide might die due to the cuts.)
“They called you crooks,” Bono said. “When you were the best of us.”
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In late May, Bono discussed the shuttering of USAID with Joe Rogan. “There’s food rotting in boats and warehouses,” Bono told the podcast host. “There is 50,000 tons of food. The people who knew the codes — who were responsible for distributing that aid — were fired. That’s not America, is it?
He continued, “To destroy, to vandalize, it felt like with glee, that these life support systems were being pulled out of the walls. [One aide worker said], ‘We don’t have the funds, we have to choose which child to pull off the IVs.’ It just seems to me, I don’t know if ‘evil’ is too strong a word, but what we know about pure evil is that it rejoices in the deaths, in the squandering of human life — particularly children. It actually rejoices in it. And whether it’s incompetence, whether it’s unintended consequences, it’s not too late for people.”
