The Worst Person Possible Just Took Over USAID

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday he’s now in charge of the U.S. Agency for International Development, just hours after billionaire Elon Musk announced Donald Trump had signed off on shutting the agency down.

“I’m the acting director of USAID,” Rubio told reporters on a visit to El Salvador, criticizing the agency’s “insubordination” in complying with national interests.

“It’s a completely unresponsive agency. It’s supposed to respond to policy directives with the State Department, and it refuses to do so,” Rubio said. “Every dollar we spend and every program we fund, that program will be aligned with the national interest of the United States. USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that.”

The decades-old independent agency employs more than 10,000 people and works on the ground in more than 60 countries. It has been a target for both Musk and Trump in recent days, both of whom claim that its work is a waste of government funding.

The USAID overhaul is part of a larger assault on foreign aid funding, which Trump halted for 90 days in an executive order he signed January 20. Rubio later froze all funding, projects, and contracts at USAID, and at least 56 officials were placed on leave. On Saturday, the USAID website went offline without explanation, and two days later, USAID employees were told to stay home.

“These are taxpayer dollars and we owe the American people the assurance that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest,” Rubio said Monday.

Rubio told reporters that some USAID programs will continue but under the umbrella of the State Department, an alarming move Democrats warned could be detrimental to national security.

“Congress established the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as an independent agency, separate from the Department of State, to ensure that we can deploy development expertise and U.S. foreign assistance quickly, particularly in times of crisis, to meet our national security goals,” Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a letter to Rubio on Monday.

“For this reason, any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed, and approved by Congress.”

This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump and his fans are framing his agreement with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to back away from tariffs as some huge strongman victory. They are sorely mistaken. 

At midnight Monday, Trump placed 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico over claims the countries aren’t doing enough to stop “drug smuggling” and undocumented immigrants from crossing the border. Canada and Mexico were prepared to retaliate with their own retaliatory tariffs, but before that could happen, Trump and Sheinbaum announced they had come to an agreement: His tariffs on Mexico are delayed for a month, and she sends 10,000 Mexican soldiers to the border.

“I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country.”

“We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico. I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a “deal” between our two Countries.” 

The MAGAsphere immediately rejoiced. “2 weeks in:Mexico caved, Panama caved, Colombia caved,Venezuela caved…” right-wing X account End Wokeness wrote.

“At this rate of achievement, not only should President Donald Trump be on Mount Rushmore, I want to personally work the chisel!” fawned Elon Musk, quoting the End Wokeness post. 

There are multiple issues with this facade that the Trump administration is putting on. 

Firstly, the number of Mexican soldiers Sheinbaum is sending to the border is routine. Mexico sent 15,000 troops to the border in 2019, and sent 10,000 again in 2021. 

“By the way, Mexico has sent its national guard to the border before, and it did jack shit to reduce fentanyl flows because the vast majority of fentanyl comes in via US CITIZENS GOING THROUGH LEGAL PORTS OF ENTRY,” wrote housing advocate Armand Domalewski.  

The economic timing of this “deal” also feels way too convenient. After Trump announced massive tariffs against some of our biggest trading partners, the U.S. stock market plummeted. Now Trump is walking back those tariffs while Mexico just sends their usual soldiers to the border. 

“The Dow opened almost 1000 points down and Trump already caved on Mexico tariffs,” one popular X user wrote.

“Ooof! Mexico, Canada and Wall Street call Trump’s Tariff bluff. NOW he wants to talk to Canada, delay tariffs on Mexico for a month and Wall Street is telling him real time his tariffs are ‘dumb,’” former RNC Chair Michael Steele wrote. “Ahh, the price of eggs, cars, avocados …”

The last part of the facade is the one Trump conveniently left out of his victory post: the guns. Sheinbaum wrote after speaking with Trump that “the United States is committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico” as part of the tariff deal. It seems that Trump left this fairly important detail out of his own verbose post to keep up the strongman appearances. 

So Mexico is sending extra troops to the border, as it regularly has in the past, and Trump agreed to shoulder a heavier burden in stopping the flow of American semiautomatic weapons into Mexico. How exactly did Mexico fold to Trump here?

Donald Trump’s tariff war is too much for his otherwise steadfast ally Senator Ron Johnson, who compared the decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada to Great Depression–era trade policy and warned of the consequences.

“I don’t believe that is productive. It is going to hurt American companies, American exporters, it will hurt American consumers long term,” Johnson told the far-right news outlet NewsMax on Monday.

A hardcore fiscal conservative, Johnson blames government spending for pretty much everything. He’s lauded Trump’s massive federal budget cuts and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But when it comes to limiting free trade, Johnson said he “can’t predict where this all goes.”

“I’m concerned,” the Wisconsin Republican told NewsMax.

On Saturday, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on America’s top trading partners, which will make everything from avocados to children’s toys more expensive. The decision naturally sparked outrage and disbelief from both countries, leading to an agreement with Mexico to delay the tariffs for at least a month. Canada, meanwhile, has already taken retaliatory measures.

“Tariffs are a tax. When you tax something, you get less of it, so we’ll probably get fewer imports, but then with retaliation, fewer exports,” Johnson warned.

Johnson compared the tariffs to the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, which raised import duties on imported goods to protect American farmers. The heavily protested policy wreaked havoc on global trade and worsened economic conditions for Americans in an already precarious time.

Several other Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, have also slammed Trump’s tariffs, but most remain determinedly loyal in light of a decision that will harm American consumers and likely unleash global economic chaos.

The stock market took a downturn Monday morning after Donald Trump’s planned tariffs went into effect at midnight Monday.  

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 all hit two-week lows of 43,921, 19,196, and 5,932, respectively. High performing companies like Apple and Nvidia slumped, along with American car companies like General Motors and Ford. Investors fled to safer investments like bonds and gold, with the precious metal jumping in value. 

The markets are struggling with Trump raising 25 percent tariffs on Canada and 10 percent on China. Trump had also planned to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico—but announced a one-month delay at the last minute on Monday. Still, the news wasn’t enough to save the stock market from plunging.

Canada has retaliated with 25 percent tariffs of its own on $107 billion of U.S. goods, with tariffs on $20.4 billion worth of goods on Tuesday and the rest following within 21 days. Prices on everything from beer to gas have gone up in the U.S. The Canadian province of Ontario is banning American companies from contracts with the province, including a $68 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink company to deliver high-speed internet to remote areas. 

Meanwhile, China pledged to take “necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests” on Saturday, including bringing a case against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization.

This morning’s market plunge comes after stocks took a dive Friday after the Trump administration announced that he would sign an executive order on tariffs the next day, sparking fears among investors. Those fears will not be easily assuaged in the coming days, as the full scale of Trump’s ill-thought economic plans have yet to hit Americans.

Trump is elevating a known racist to one of the highest positions in the State Department. 

Darren Beattie, a conservative journalist who was fired from the Trump administration in 2018 after revelations about his attendance at a conference with white nationalists, will serve as the acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ABC News reported.  

Beattie has a long list of public viewpoints that range from problematic to despicable. 

“Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” Beattie wrote on X in October. “Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.” 

“Britain treats its own native white people far worse than China treats its muslim Uighur population,” he wrote in August of that same year. 

“I have more respect for Jeffrey Epstein than Bill Barr,” he tweeted in 2020, referring to the infamous sexual predator and former attorney general, respectively. “At least Epstein wasn’t a pussy.” On January 6, 2021, he spent the day on X warning Senator Tim Scott, “BLM,” Ibram X. Kendi, and Kay Cole James to “learn their places” and “take a knee” to MAGA. 

Beattie’s appointment—along with those of Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, and others—is another indication that white supremacists are flooding Trump’s White House.