The End of U.S. Soft Power
· 59 min
Episode The End of U.S. Soft Power
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the interim head of USAID, for however much longer the agency lasts. For 60 years, the massive bureaucracy was a vehicle for American soft power abroad. Trump, Elon Musk, and all their creatures don’t like it. It might soon be gone.
Nicole Widdersheim is the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch with a long history of humanitarian work. She’s here on Angry Planet today to walk us through this new era of the American Empire.
• A brief history of USAID • The size and cost of USAID • Critiquing a bureaucracy • People like you when you give them stuff • Defense, diplomacy, development • The real world consequences of the ending of foreign aid • A mallet, not a scalpel • Supporters need to get cynical • USAID did a bad job of defending itself • Americans don’t care about the human cost • The Glorious Republic of Jasonvania wants food aid • Congressionally approved rice to North Korea • It turns out the cruelty is, in fact, the point • At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep • No one read those reports on Afghanistan • How China’s “Belt and Road” actually works • The end of USAID will screw over American farmers • Trumpism is a lack of consistency
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Links in the notes 7
- https://angryplanetpod.com
- https://2017-2020.usaid.gov/documents/1866/diplomacy-development-defense-planning-guide
- https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/living-and-dying-for-rice-in-north-korea/
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/at-usaid-waste-and-abuse-runs-deep/
- https://apnews.com/article/china-debt-banking-loans-financial-developing-countries-collapse-8df6f9fac3e1e758d0e6d8d5dfbd3ed6
- https://northdenvertribune.com/neighborhood-news/musk-and-trump-combine-to-shaft-us-farmers/
- https://acast.com/privacy
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