The White House announcement on Jan. 20 of a freeze on foreign assistance was greeted with either glee or apathy by much of the electorate, if social media is any indicator. The former is not surprising, but who could be apathetic to retaining untold billions previously diverted to support globalist agendas and unappreciative foreign masses, if the critics of foreign assistance were to be believed? Perhaps years of being taken advantage of by Washington elites had inured Americans to what a few decried as waste, fraud, and abuse.
Having served on both sides of the foreign assistance equation for close to three decades as funder and implementer, including as an appointee in the first Trump administration, I have had a front-row seat in a system opaque to most Americans. It is perfectly understandable, at least to me, that Americans for whom the Cold War is as distant a memory as a once robust U.S. manufacturing sector, would be skeptical of perceived foreign handouts, when entire communities in our country have been bypassed by a global economy that has enriched the few at the expense of the many.
As the new administration acts to staunch the external flow of hard-earned tax dollars to nations that many Americans could not find on a map or have never even heard of, voters are looking forward to the redirection of these funds to reemploy and reempower communities long neglected by both political parties. They are looking forward to rising education standards, increasing industrial output, decreasing unemployment, improved health care, and the rebirth of the American Dream, with homeownership once again within reach of the many. I count myself among them.
