Evil Cuts by Trump and Musk Kill More Than 100 People Every Hour
Every hour 103 people will die across the globe as a direct result of inhumane efforts by Elon Musk and trump to defund and destroy U.S. foreign aid programs, through the intentionally and incongruously named, Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).
These are not statistics but are real people who will suffer painful deaths. Trump treats the victims of cuts in vital aid in the same way that he considers migrants to be pawns in his political strategy.
Through DOGE, tens of millions of dollars have been ripped away from crucial health programs. The U.S. could surely afford the aid funding, as Forbes reported that the nation remains the wealthiest country in the world with a gross domestic product or GDP of $30.51 trillion. The GDP is estimated to increase by 1.8 percent in 2025, leaving each American with a GDP of $89,000.
The U.S. GDP dwarfs other largest world economies, including China at $19.23 trillion; Germany, $4.474 trillion; India, $4.19 trillion; Japan, $4.19 trillion; United Kingdom, $3.83 trillion; France, $3.21 trillion; Italy, $2.42 trillion; Canada, $2.23 trillion; and Brazil, $2.13 trillion.
Leading the massacre has been Musk, owner of Tesla and SpaceX, the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $381 billion as of May, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and an even greater $424.7 billion according to Forbes.
Musk has claimed not one child has died as a result of the massive reductions in the U.S. Agency for International Budget (USAID).
“No children are dying on my watch,” he said. “No one has died because of U.S.A.I.D.”
Musk went on to brag about his deadly efforts, saying, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead.”
Musk ridiculed USAID as “evil” and “a criminal organization,” and that it is “Time for it to die.”
In 2023, USAID invested about $900 million to fund labs and emergency-response preparedness in more than 30 countries. The pause on foreign aid froze the programs.
The trump administration also has cut all funding, $377 million, for the U.N. Population Fund. The Population Fund estimates that American financial support over the last four years prevented 17,000 maternal deaths. The Trump administration also has cut more than 80 percent of USAID’s funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once considered as a potential counterbalance to trump’s worst instincts, has repeatedly lied to lawmakers that “no one had died” as a result of the cuts to USAID. Borrowing from the trump playbook, Rubio said that reported deaths in Myanmar and South Sudan were “false.”
“No children are dying on my watch,” Rubio said.
Public health experts, aid workers, and affected families, however, paint a much more tragic picture of the worldwide devastation caused by the lost off U.S. Aid.
Impactcounter.com, a non-profit that tracks the impact of programs on public health, found that the discontinuation of U.S. aid has led to an overall 99,672 adult deaths and 207,977 child deaths. That translates to 103 deaths per hour.
Impact Tracker took a close look at the cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Created in 2003, it is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. It had survived through 10 Congresses and four presidents, until trump.
Since PEPFAR’s inception in 2003, the U.S. government has invested more than $100 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response, saving more than 25 million lives, preventing millions of HIV infections, and supporting several countries to achieve HIV epidemic control, all while significantly strengthening global health and economic security.
On January 24, trump ordered a 90-day suspension of aid through the PEPFAR Program which supports 20 million people living with HIV across 55 countries. The suspension impacts 222,000 people receiving daily HIV medication, 224,000 HIV tests performed daily, and essential services for vulnerable populations.
A waiver had been issued to resume critical services but funding to the majority of USAID-supported PEPFAR programs were stopped on February 26, likely meaning permanent discontinuation of the funding for those services.
In South Africa, at least three PEPFAR-funded programs — transgender clinics of the Wits Reproductive Health Institute, the Anova Health Institute’s Ivan Toms Centre for Health in Green Point and OUT’s Engagement Men’s Health clinics in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape –temporarily closed down.
In South Africa, where more than seven million people are H.I.V.-positive, the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation estimates that ending PEPFAR would lead to more than 600,000 deaths over a decade in that country alone.
The dire impacts of the cuts in USAID funds have resulted in 1.24 million more adult malaria cases, including 9,158 adult malaria deaths; 3.9 million more child malaria cases with 27,462 added children deaths from malaria; 30,127 new tuberculosis cases and 23,727 deaths; 59,640 more child deaths from diarrhea; 58,521 additional deaths from malnutrition; 64,725 more children who died of pneumonia; and 10,455 deaths from neglected tropical diseases. The Center for Global Development estimated that cumulative U.S. aid has saved around 3.3 million lives who otherwise would have died from HIV/AIDS, vaccine-preventable illnesses covered by the Gavi vaccine alliance, TB, malaria, and emergency/humanitarian relief.
The Center did not consider other aspects of how health is impaired by aid cuts. For example, in 2014, about 780 million people lacked access to clean water. The resulting diarrhea led to an estimated 337,000 deaths, according to the Global Burden of Disease. Between 2008–2019, USAID’s assistance resulted in 53.7 million people gaining access to sustainable drinking water, translating to about 23,200 lives saved per year.
Regarding family planning, the Guttmacher Institute estimated that U.S. assistance provides modern family planning services to about 11.7 million women worldwide. But if those women used traditional methods, it would result in 8,340 maternal deaths a year because of complications from unwanted pregnancies.
The Center for Global Development determined that before the USAID reductions, most lives were saved in East and Southern Africa and Nigeria, in line with the geography of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and malaria burdens. The most lives saved are in Nigeria and South Africa, both with around 150,000 lives saved per year from U.S. foreign aid, mostly from PEPFAR but also from vaccines, tuberculosis control and malaria control.
Outside of Africa, the highest numbers of lives saved are in Indonesia, India, and Pakistan, based on allocations for TB controls (and for vaccines in Pakistan’s case), as well as in Ukraine (mostly due to TB and HIV/AIDS control).
In total, the largest number of lives, 269,889, have been saved in Nigeria; followed by 202,693 in South Africa; 179,051 in Tanzania; 176,036 in Mozambique; 169,372 in Uganda; 162,809 in Ethiopia; 151,073 in Kenya; and 136,923 in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Trump’s cuts in foreign aid have affected not just programs that treat disease but others that prevent and stop outbreaks around the world. Without the funds, people are more vulnerable to threatening viruses and bacteria.
For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing the deadliest mpox outbreak in history, with cases exploding in a dozen other African countries. Multiple hemorrhagic fever viruses are festering with Ebola in Uganda, Marburg in Tanzania, and Lassa in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Marburg Virus Disease or MVD is a highly virulent disease that can cause severe disease and is clinically similar to Ebola disease. Lassa fever (LF) is an acute viral illness and a viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF). Prompt treated with Ribavirin, an antiviral agent, is necessary to prevent potentially deadly ramifications.
One estimate is that the cuts will mean more than 28,000 new cases of infectious diseases like Ebola and Marburg, and 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year.
In West Africa, rodents that spread Lassa fever invaded homes in search of food. USAID’s Stop Spillover project introduced rodent-proof food containers to limit the problem, but no more.
In Congo, the mpox response slowed because there were no health workers to transport samples. More than 400 mpox patients were left stranded after fleeing overwhelmed clinics.
Providing humanitarian aid is considered “soft power” in that it builds good will toward the U.S. But trump’s cuts are opening the door to other countries stepping in to seize on soft power.
This month, Cambodia, China and UNICEF launched the project, “strengthening education, health and hygiene for Cambodia’s most vulnerable children.”
The partnership was created to improve quality inclusive education, health, nutrition, and hygiene for Cambodia’s most vulnerable children. Included will be supplies and materials provided to 10,000 teachers and 80,000 students in pre-primary and primary schools, including 600 children with disabilities.
The support from China Aid will also strengthen the capacity of 600 health personnel across 200 health facilities and 800 Village Health Support Group members to provide lifesaving quality health and nutrition services, a statement said.
To address urgent gaps in access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services, critical hand hygiene supplies will be provided to vulnerable households living in flood-prone areas, where the risk of contamination and spread of disease is high.