That CS student was Luke Farritor -- now part of the infamous DOGE team.
Shouldn’t people be more mad at dummies doing it?
Taking this to its logical conclusion, it is pointless for us to discuss anything we're not actively doing.
Perhaps you could also investigate the motivation of the people who tell you how to feel and what to think?
Along those lines… how many were receiving say, USAID themselves?
The liberal media echo chamber is preventing people from using common sense. When media and congressional democrats literally call us “Nazis” — it’s hard to take any of it seriously.
“Trump is a fascist”
If that’s true, he’s the first fascist in history to attempt to make the government smaller.
Apparently being interested in free speech and smaller government and reducing waste, fraud, and abuse is fascism.
The people screaming loudest about USAID for example huge hypocrites, or have a very short memory: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/icymi-washing...
In theory, DOGE isn't a bad idea, but you look at the implementation, and you look at the moves Musk has made to remove his enemies from their positions, and you look at the things they won't touch - their goals align more with making the billionaire class richer than anything relating to free speech or reducing waste. Musk lies constantly, with and without reason. I personally think he's so used to it, he can't help lying at this point.
Regarding USAID specifically, it was set up in the aftermath of the Foreign Assistance Act by John F. Kennedy, and as an agency it was later established as law by Congress. Trump cannot legally shut down USAID without another act of Congress, and he cannot legally redirect its funds, which have already been appropriated. The administration is well within their right to change how the funds are allocated, but so far the stated intention has been to shut off all foreign aid, not change what aid is provided.
The fact that Warren Christopher etc. wanted to get rid of USAID 27 years ago is irrelevant, since that plan was never adopted and did not call for shutting off foreign aid, so it's not comparable. It's just misdirection.
It's also difficult to take arguments for "government waste" seriously in the case of USAID. First, the agency has a tiny budget of around $50B (2023), 16x less than Medicare, or around 0.8% of the entire state budget. Secondly, it was explicitly set up to give away money. Waste is its raison d'etre! Reports show its admin overhead being around 7.7%, which is very low for an aid organization.
It's pretty clear that USAID isn't cut because of waste, but because the Trump administration wants to stop giving aid to poor foreign countries. However, they're not so inclined to say that out loud.
It's also a self-own because USAID is an important soft power tool. It's one of the ways the US can project a positive image on the world, something it has been very good at since the post-war period.
He has cut the staff from 1400 to 300. And it will now be serving US interests.
No need to panic now.
The administration has now shut down CFPB (also illegally, I believe) [2], an agency that has done nothing but good for the average American.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/us/politics/usaid-job-cut...
[2] https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/vought-moves-to-defan...
Pretty sure that's exactly what the US voted for in the last election, considering that was pretty explicitly promised. I think most of the US is cheering them on as they do it.
If they refuse to impeach, then they are tacitly handing the Executive ever more power, essentially moving us from a republic to an elected dictatorship.
And given that the GOP has a majority, no matter how slim, it seems very unlikely they will impeach.
And the president can say "I'm gonna ignore that and dismantle the agency Congress set up to do it"
What power does Congress have anymore?
Fact, no one can show that USAID’s more curious and controversial grants served American interests.
You don’t measure a baseball game by number of hits or strike outs, but by the number of runs scored. The popular vote is literally irrelevant.
He is more popular now than any point in his first term.
What's the internal logic that rationalizes executive regulatory power being unconstitutional with a legal presidential power to unilaterally ignore Congress's funding allocations?
They have no understanding of history, of how important such separation of power are.
In such context, it is easy to see the logic. They have no idea the relevance, only that their team likes the outcome.
So much potential and he dropped out of school to become a Thiel/Musk minion.