USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman ’87 Calls Dismantling ‘Terribly Short-Sighted’

One of the first targets of the second Trump administration and the President’s newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency has been the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. Since its inception more than 60 years ago, USAID has been the primary instrument for distributing American foreign aid, with a 2024 budget of approximately $38 billion. President Trump, who has claimed that the agency was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” has put an almost total freeze on USAID spending, shut down its website, and fired or furloughed most of its workers.

From 2021 until Jan. 16, Isobel Coleman ’87 was the deputy administrator for policy and programming at USAID, a post which included serving as the agency’s representative to the National Security Council. A political appointee, she left when the Biden administration ended. She spoke with PAW about USAID’s history, mission, and role.

What does USAID do?

USAID was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, at the height of the Cold War, to be an instrument of American soft power by helping to demonstrate America’s ability to make people’s lives better and improve global health. For example, USAID was instrumental in helping to eliminate smallpox and bring polio to the verge of elimination worldwide. It has also provided textbooks, constructed schools, and trained teachers, educating millions. It’s no coincidence that the dissolution of USAID is being cheered by autocrats around the world.

Some news reports have highlighted USAID-supported programs that might sound rather questionable. Should American taxpayers be spending money for all these things?

It is easy to cherry pick specific programs, but there have been a number of other news articles debunking those examples. But the reality is that, around the world, it’s better when people are more educated, when they are vaccinated, and when they’re healthier. It creates more economic growth in those countries, and that benefits America. There are market opportunities for American companies when our allies are strong, prosperous, and healthy.

For example, in recent years USAID has purchased about $2 billion of wheat from American farmers. Remember those pictures of starving babies in Yemen on the front of every newspaper back 2018 and 2019? American wheat has helped ameliorate famine there and in so many countries around the world. When the reality of basically eliminating foreign assistance sinks in, you’re going to start hearing from American farmers. And you’re also going to start seeing a lot more pictures of starving babies on the front pages of newspapers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that, according to a recent review, only about 10% of foreign aid was actually going to the recipients, with most of the rest going to overhead and bureaucracy. Is that true?

I take issue with that 10% figure. In some places, the overhead is indeed high because it’s extraordinarily difficult to work there. In a place like Gaza, we have had food and medicine stacked up in northern Sinai in Egypt for months, and were unable to get food in.

But there is something that is getting lost in all of this. Many Americans think that USAID has this huge, multi-trillion-dollar budget and just goes off and does what it wants. In fact, nothing that USAID does happens without congressional notification and approval. In fact, its work is overseen by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Senator Rubio sat for more than a decade. It is highly scrutinized.

President Trump has said he is firing or furloughing USAID’s overseas workforce immediately. What effect will that have on those workers?

USAID career staff have been pilloried in the in the press, and it is so unfair. These are people who have dedicated their lives to public service and have worked under extraordinarily hard conditions. It has really been remarkable, what they have sacrificed and what they have done, and yet their kids are going to ripped out of school, and they’re forced to relocate with no notice. This is not the way to treat dedicated public servants who have devoted their lives to serving American interests and helping people around the world.

Why do you think the Trump administration is doing this now?

Foreign assistance has long been under pressure by critics who feel the U.S. shouldn’t be helping other countries. There have been surveys showing that the American public thinks that about a quarter of the federal budget goes to foreign aid, when in fact it’s a little over half of 1%. USAID doesn’t have the same domestic constituency that other agencies do.

But it’s all so terribly short-sighted and even counterproductive. So much of what USAID has done has been to counter inroads that China and Russia have been trying to make around the world. One of the last trips I made for USAID was to the South Pacific, where many of these small but strategically important island nations are coming under the sway of China. They are looking for jobs, for technology, for infrastructure, and the Chinese are saying, “We’ll give it to you!” Through USAID, we have tried to provide them with an alternative, and now they’re not going to have that alternative. That will have strategic consequences.

We have also been doing a lot in Latin America to try to reduce migration. About 8 million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years for some of the neighboring countries, such as Colombia and Ecuador. USAID has been constructing programs in those countries to help integrate them into those societies, so they don’t continue their migration to our borders. There have been a lot of Venezuelans trying to get into the United States, but it’s a lot fewer than it could have been without this program.

Interview conducted and condensed by PAW senior writer Mark F. Bernstein ’83.