When Elon Musk’s DOGE took a cleaver to the federal government earlier this year, one of the most notable casualties was USAID, the government agency that administered humanitarian aid and projected U.S. “soft power” around the world.
And now, with USAID (the US Agency for International Development) about to officially close, two former presidents have spoken out, including one who doesn’t often do so, former President George W. Bush.
Per CNN, Bush, never a good friend of Donald Trump, participated in the call. Bush specifically referenced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the program to help reduce the spread of AIDS in Africa and treat those with the disease, long considered one of Bush’s most significant accomplishments in office.
This is such a sad day for the world. Thank you, #USAID, for your work and your heart. You will be back someday… if the world is lucky. https://t.co/WOYD52mz1K
— Running to Stand Still (@RTSSFilmSeries) July 1, 2025
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“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work – and that is your good heart,’’ Bush told USAID staffers, per CNN. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”
Bush’s successor as president, Barack Obama, also participated in the call, as did Bono. And while Obama has often appeared on the campaign trail with Trump’s various opponents, Bush has not taken to speaking out much about political matters since the start of the Trump era.
“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,” Obama said on the call. “Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come,”
USAID, which dates back to the Kennedy Administration, will be folded into the State Department, where it will be replaced by a successor agency to be called “America First.”
Bush, Obama and a tearful Bono fault Trump’s gutting of USAID on agency’s last day
Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell… pic.twitter.com/uZTsc3F7Om
— James Tate (@JamesTate121) June 30, 2025
Bono, the U2 frontman, also made a “surprise appearance” on the call.
“They called you crooks. When you were the best of us,” Bono said, in reference to specious claims by Trump, Elon Musk and those around him that USAID was a hotbed of fraud and waste.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
