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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFormer Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama Getty ImagesAP \u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration \u2013 and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem \u2013 in an emotional video farewell on Monday with staffers of the US Agency for International Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama called the Trump administration\u2019s dismantling of USAID \u201ca colossal mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by former President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting US national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a video conference, which was billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They expressed their appreciation for the thousands of USAID staffers who have lost their jobs and life\u2019s work. Their agency was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government-cutting by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, with staffers abruptly locked out of systems and offices and terminated by mass emailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump claimed the agency was run by \u201cradical left lunatics\u201d and rife with \u201ctremendous fraud.\u201d Musk called it \u201ca criminal organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama, speaking in a recorded statement, offered assurances to the aid and development workers, some listening from overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour work has mattered and will matter for generations to come,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obama has largely kept a low public profile during Trump\u2019s second term and refrained from criticizing the monumental changes that Trump has made to US programs and priorities at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGutting USAID is a travesty, and it\u2019s a tragedy. Because it\u2019s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,\u201d Obama said. He credited USAID with not only saving lives, but being a main factor in global economic growth that has turned some aid-receiving countries into US markets and trade partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former Democratic president predicted that \u201dsooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked for comment, the State Department said it would be introducing the department\u2019s foreign assistance successor to USAID, to be called America First, this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe new process will ensure there is proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USAID oversaw programs around the world: providing water and life-saving food to millions uprooted by conflict in Sudan, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere; sponsoring the \u201cGreen Revolution\u201d that revolutionized modern agriculture and curbed starvation and famine; preventing disease outbreaks; promoting democracy; and providing financing and development that allowed countries and people to climb out of poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bush, who also spoke in a recorded message, went straight to the cuts in a landmark AIDS and HIV program started by his Republican administration and credited with saving 25 million lives around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bipartisan blowback from Congress to cutting the popular President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, helped save significant funding for the program. But cuts and rule changes have reduced the number getting the life-saving care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve showed the great strength of America through your work \u2013 and that is your good heart,\u2019\u2019 Bush told USAID staffers. \u201cIs it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and former US Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield also spoke to the staffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So did humanitarian workers, including one who spoke of the welcome appearance of USAID staffers with food when she was a frightened 8-year-old child in a Liberian refugee camp. A World Food Program official vowed through sobs that the US aid mission would be back someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bono, a longtime humanitarian advocate in Africa and elsewhere, was announced as the \u201csurprise guest,\u201d in shades and a cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He jokingly hailed the USAID staffers as \u201csecret agents of international development\u201d in acknowledgment of the down-low nature of Monday\u2019s unofficial gathering of the USAID community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bono held back tears at times as he recited a poem he had written to the agency and its gutting. He spoke of children dying of malnutrition, a reference to millions of people who Boston University researchers and other analysts say will die because of the US cuts to funding for health and other programs abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey called you crooks. When you were the best of us,\u201d Bono said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Associated Press Published 6:18 PM EDT, Mon June 30, 2025 (CNN.com) Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama Getty ImagesAP \u2014 Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration \u2013 and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem \u2013… Continue reading