During an interview with CNN’s Larry Madowo, Rwanda’s President surprised the audience with his support for Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.
Paul Kagame, who has been serving as president since 2000, shocked the network’s foreign correspondent by expressing full agreement with Trump’s significant cuts to the governmental agency.
Trump revealed he would close down the entire organization, which delivers billions of dollars in humanitarian aid overseas, on Friday.
‘CLOSE IT DOWN!’ Trump, 78, wrote of USAID on Truth Social on Friday morning, while also accusing the agency of rampant corruption and fraud.Â
He had previously asserted that the agency was ‘run by radical lunatics.’
‘President Trump has unconventional ways of doing things… I completely agree with him on many things,’ Kagame said during the special.
Madowo, an international correspondent affiliated with a left-wing media outlet, challenged Kagame’s stance by highlighting that Rwanda relies on some US aid for healthcare and development.
‘Even though it will hurt you, as Rwanda depends on some us aid to fund your healthcare and development?’ Madowo probed.
‘I think from being hurt, we might learn some lessons,’ Kagame replied.
USAID has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs.
‘It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,’ Trump said to reporters about USAID on Sunday night.
Trump, his close ally, now dubbed ‘first buddy,’ Elon Musk and some Republican lawmakers have targeted the agency in increasingly strident terms, accusing it of promoting liberal causes.
The agency was created to provide humanitarian relief overseas, however, it has been given the axe after it was declared ‘beyond repair’ by the new Trump administration.
USAID staffers were instructed to stay out of the agency’s DC headquarters on Monday after Musk announced the president agreed with him to shut the agency down.
The billionaire ‘first buddy,’ who is leading a civilian review of the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has claimed the agency is a ‘criminal organization.’
‘It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,’ Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday. ‘What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.’
‘We’re shutting it down.’
USAID, whose website vanished Saturday without explanation, administers billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security programs in about 120 countries.
It was established in 1961 under president John F Kennedy to ‘lead US efforts to alleviate poverty, disease, and humanitarian need, and assists U.S. commercial interests by supporting developing countries’ economic growth and building countries’ capacity to participate in world trade,’ according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The aid agency, which managed over $40million in 2023, employs over 10,000 people – with approximately two-thirds serving overseas.
The countries who received the most USAID-managed funds in 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria.
USAID’s biggest funding sectors have been related to health since the 1990s, with the agency donating billions to combat HIV/AIDS around the world.
Aside from funds for humanitarian relief like food and medicine, USAID also funds pro-democracy NGOs that focus on education and legal aid in places under authoritarian regimes.
The agency has also helped fund pro-democracy projects such as independent media in nations like Ukraine, Georgia, Venezuela and Mozambique. According to the Center for International Media Assistance, the US government is the largest public donor to independent media development globally – largely through USAID.
USAID has also funded pro-LGBTQ initiatives such as a group in Serbia called ‘Grupa Izadji,’ which in English translates to ‘Group Come Out.’
Former Obama administration Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, led the agency during Joe Biden’s term.
While the official USAID website has been shut down, an archival page from the first Trump administration describes its mission as ‘promoting and demonstrating democratic values and advancing a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.’
