The Impact of President Trump’s Executive Order
Politics and Policies Impact People
The Impact of President Trump’s Executive Order regarding putting a 90 day hold on USAID.
72 billion dollars of US Aid and Assistance in one year is a lot of money to wrap my head around.
Voting Matters.
Politics impact people’s lives.
Corruption and Accountability regarding polices impact people’s lives.
This picture is from Sunday when a former refugee from Burma(Myanmar), a leader and myself were praying after our service for the humanitarian impact recent presidential executive orders have had on a region of the world we care about. In our circle of relationships this is about people as well as policies and positions.
When politics is just about polices and positions, it gets nasty. The evidence of this is vividly played out online. People are getting ugly and keyboard wars are igniting divisive skirmishes left and right. People are passionate about these issues and rightly so, unfortunately the means in which people go about educating one another is unhelpful to most that want to make difference in this world.
I have stood in the very refugee camps that currently are having money and services stopped. I’ve seen the schools, medical services, housing and feeding projects that rely on international aid.
I’ve also seen corruption, abuse of services, fraud, manipulation and racism at work in the people and systems that are involved. It’s a complex and conflicted system that does a ton of good and breeds a lot of problems. There are not easy answers and because of that there’s been far too little accountability and consequences when problems have been known.
This is why we have chosen to work in our circles to get as close to the problems as possible where there are eyes and hands connected to the people and problems. We work to bypass the middlemen structures that depend on the suffering and need and require the problems to never end to justify their own organizational existence.
The temptations, justifications and complications involved in these massive humanitarian aid approaches are unmanageable without a level of oversight and accountability that seems to be near impossible to truly keep in place. I think they have their place, but for the majority of our engagements we pursue private, personal and relational pathways over public and multi-national structures.
The articles below show the realities of these conflicting complexities.
Trump’s Aid Suspension Wreaks Havoc on Thailand-Myanmar Border. Medical clinics serving around 100,000 refugees at camps in western Thailand are dependent on American aid. https://thediplomat.com/2025/01/trumps-aid-suspension-wreaks-havoc-on-thailand-myanmar-border/
US issues new waiver for humanitarian aid amid freeze https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-issues-new-waiver-humanitarian-aid-amid-freeze-2025-01-29/
UN chief Guterres calls for more exemptions to US aid pause https://www.reuters.com/world/un-chief-guterres-calls-more-exemptions-us-aid-pause-2025-01-27/
Before Trump purge at USAID, memo warned agency it created 'vulnerabilities' doling out foreign aid https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/trump-purge-usaid-memo-warned-agency-its-vulnerabilities-doling-out
UN Slams Aid Abuse After ‘Rice Bunkers’ Found at Myanmar Junta Base https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/un-slams-aid-abuse-after-rice-bunkers-found-at-myanmar-junta-base.html