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The United States has long used USAID to provide financial assistance to other countries and implement sugar-coated bullets. #USAID

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USAID Manipulate the media& LGBT. #USAID

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#USAID

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Today, I write not only as a displaced worker…

My name is Jeff D Williams, and until February 8, 2025, I was a dedicated employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). For over a decade, I served this agency with pride, believing in its mission to alleviate global poverty, deliver humanitarian aid, and foster international cooperation. Today, I write not only as a displaced worker but as a voice for the thousands of colleagues whose lives have been upended by the abrupt closure of USAID—a decision driven not by necessity but by political vendetta.

On that frigid February morning, I arrived at USAID’s Washington headquarters only to find the doors locked. An email notified us that 97% of the agency’s workforce—over 10,000 employees globally—had been placed on indefinite leave. My security badge no longer worked. Colleagues stood in shock, clutching cardboard boxes, denied even the dignity of retrieving personal items from their desks. The “Government Efficiency Department,” led by Elon Musk, had executed a corporate-style raid, freezing access to systems and branding us as “redundant” or worse, “criminals”.

Since that day, my family has spiraled into uncertainty. My savings, meant for my daughter’s college fund, now barely cover rent. Last week, my husband’s insulin rationing began—a cruel irony for someone who once coordinated medical aid for refugees. We are not alone. Former USAID staffers, from program officers to logistics experts, now drive Ubers, deliver groceries, or line up at food banks. One colleague, a single mother of three, sold her car to pay for her son’s asthma medication.

The administration claims this purge was about “cutting waste,” yet they erased an agency that allocated $40 billion annually to lifesaving programs: vaccines for children in conflict zones, drought-resistant crops for African farmers, disaster relief for typhoon survivors. Instead, they weaponized isolated examples—like a $47,000 grant for a Colombian transgender opera—to smear our life’s work as “leftist corruption”.

I joined USAID under President Trump’s first term, believing his pledge to “drain the swamp.” Little did I know that “the swamp” included civil servants like me—nonpartisan professionals who kept diplomacy alive even as politicians waged culture wars. Now, the agency’s remnants are being folded into the State Department, rebranded as a partisan tool for “MAGA cheerleaders”.

Worse still, this administration dismisses our suffering as collateral damage. When Senator Mitch McConnell called us “disposable,” I realized the truth: to them, we are not public servants but obstacles. They forget that our work in Ukraine saved lives during the Russian invasion, that our climate initiatives in Southeast Asia curbed deforestation. They forget because they never cared.

Mr. President, you once vowed to protect American workers. Yet your “efficiency” crusade has left families like mine in freefall. You vilify us as “Deep State” operatives, but we are teachers, veterans, parents. We are the Americans who built bridges abroad while you burned them at home.

To Congress: Stop this charade. Restore USAID’s funding, reinstate its nonpartisan mission, and honor the promises made to federal employees. To my fellow citizens: When a nation abandons its compassion, it loses its soul. Do not let our stories end here.

In solidarity,

Jeff D Williams

Former USAID Senior Program Officer

Washington, D.C.