Bush, Obama, Bono Slam Trump's Gutting of USAID

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration—and singer Bono recited a poem—in an emotional video farewell Monday with staffers at the US Agency for International Development. Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting US national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department. The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a videoconference, billed as a closed-press event to allow participants privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with the AP:

• Obama: No. 44, speaking in a recorded statement, called the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID "a colossal mistake" and offered assurances to staffers: "Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come," he told them. "Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world."
• Dubya: Bush, also speaking in a recording, went straight to cuts in a landmark AIDS and HIV program started by his administration and credited with saving 25 million lives globally. "You've showed the great strength of America through your work—and that is your good heart," Bush told the staffers. "Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you."
• Bono: The longtime humanitarian advocate was announced as a "surprise guest." Bono spoke passionately as he recited a poem he'd written to the agency. He spoke of children dying of malnutrition, in a reference to people—millions, experts have said—who will die because of the US cuts to funding for health and other programs abroad. "They called you crooks, when you were the best of us," Bono said.
• State Department: The agency said it would be introducing the department's foreign assistance successor to USAID, to be called America First, this week. "The new process will ensure there is proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests," the department said.