Defending Development: Musk’s Basic Misunderstanding is Amusing— but Dangerous

"Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, we have no shared reality, we can’t begin to solve any problem…If you tell a lie a million times, it becomes a fact. If you make people believe lies are facts, then you can control them."Maria Ressa, recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

I have been fasting from social media since the beginning of 2025 to focus on my dissertation and to protect my mental well-being and cognitive ability since false news spreads six times faster than true stories on social media. But now, Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk -- who had invested $250 million in Trump's campaign and currently enjoys his payoff -- are in my face daily through the news apps I subscribe to. So it's time for me to speak up and share it on my three channels of social media. In my view, we face three major global challenges today that virtually leave no one untouched: climate change, democratic backsliding, and disinformation. In this post, I talk about the third issue.

Elon Musk misunderstands how U.S. foreign aid works.

The USAID - the U.S. Agency for International Development - has been dismantled by the Trump 2.0 Administration since early February 2025. USAID is a 63-year-old agency overseeing global efforts to improve health and education and decrease poverty and hunger. The agency's website https://www.usaid.gov/ now only has a page announcing possible administrative leave for its personnel globally and its account on X (formerly Twitter) has been deleted. While I couldn’t care less when Musk frequently takes to his X platform like someone with no friends to talk to or work to do, this time is different because it affects global health and development, issues I care about, and my friends in the U.S. and Indonesia, whose jobs are on the line. Musk declared his hostility toward U.S. international development assistance by labeling it "a criminal organization." He falsely asserts that only 10 percent of USAID funds reach their intended recipients.

Rachel Bonnifield and Justin Sandefur make a timely evidence-based analysis that the 10% (or about 11%) figure refers to the proportion of payments made directly to a "prime" implementing partner (government, NGO, or company) in developing countries. A "prime" implementing partner is a direct recipient of U.S. funding responsible for managing a distinct aid program. The "prime" implementing partners often collaborate with various other organizations that receive "sub-awards" from the prime. These sub-recipients can include local organizations, suppliers, nonprofits, and for-profit companies. USAID typically conducts a competitive bidding and evaluation process to select a "prime" implementing partner. For instance, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) won the USAID bid and completed the review process, enabling it to lead a four-year stunting reduction program in Indonesia called PASTI (Partnership to Accelerate Stunting Reduction in Indonesia). Besides USAID, PASTI is also funded by Tanoto Foundation, PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, PT Bank Central Asia, Tbk and Bakti Barito Foundation. As the prime partner, WVI issued sub-awards to local organizations like Yayasan Cipta to help coordinate the initiative in the Pandeglang district, where I conducted my fieldwork last year.

So, where does the remaining 90% of U.S. foreign aid go? As shown in the figure below, Bonnifield and Sandefur carefully break down how the remaining 90% of foreign aid flows through various channels. They include American companies and nonprofits (31%); multilateral organizations like the World Bank, World Food Program, and the Global Fund (46%); and US agencies themselves (12%). This shows that Musk confuses USAID's 90% reliance on "intermediaries" with waste. This reveals his basic misunderstanding about how foreign aid works, which is amusing -- but dangerous. As with other organizations, there is always room for improving budget efficiency and ensuring quality spending to minimize waste in USAID. But spreading lies that the agency's "level of corruption and waste is unreal" is unforgivably cringeworthy. Debunking this disinformation is critical, as it fuels efforts to justify dismantling USAID entirely.

USAID globally saves lives and free speech through independent news outlets.

I understand that sometimes the government wants to shrink its spending to address its budget deficit. Yet, the Trump administration's effort to dismantle USAID does not make sense because the USAID funds represent less than 1% of the federal budget. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in 2019 stated "Anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you." Among other programs, USAID has funded emergency food assistance and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which was launched in 2003 under President George W. Bush’s administration with strong bipartisan support. Even Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s nominee to run the National Institutes of Health co-authored a paper demonstrating the impact of PEPFAR on reducing death rates. With the ongoing 90-day pause of all foreign assistance, the PEPFAR operation that currently provides lifesaving HIV treatment for 20.6 million people, including 566,000 children, is disrupted. When individuals stop taking HIV medications, their viral loads typically rebound within approximately three weeks. When children are not immediately put on HIV drugs, they are at exceptionally high risk of death. I believe Secretary Rubio is fully aware of the importance of US foreign aid globally. Back in 2017, he made a sound argument for "the soft power" of development assistance:

"Imagine if you yourself was someone that survived because of American assistance from dying from HIV or from malaria; or you got to go to school because of American help; or you didn't contract polio the way your relatives used to contract polio because of American assistance. Imagine if you have one of these young people around the world whose lives are better because of the help of the American taxpayer. This is never going to be 100% for sure, but I promise you it's going to be a lot harder to recruit someone to anti-American terrorism if the United States of America was the reason why they're even alive today.” Marco Rubio

USAID has supported organizations promoting democracy and independent news outlets, especially in the former Soviet Union. After Musk announced plans to put $40bn USAID "into the wood chipper" -- let's pause here: Musk's access to the Treasury Department's payment system itself violated the Constitution and existing laws including the Privacy Act of 1974, and has anyone called him out and fight against this violation? -- strongmen around the world are ready to kill independent media through draconian media laws and criminal cases: Vladimir Putin in Russia, Balázs Orbán in Hungary, Gustavo Petro in Colombia, Nayib Bukele in El Savador.

USAID was formally established as an independent agency by Congress in 1998, although it was originally created in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order to counter Soviet influence during the height of the Cold War, following the passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. The Act mandated the establishment of an independent agency focused on development, distinct from politics and the military. To disestablish USAID will take an act of Congress.

Hope moves and takes action.

If you don't care about politics, that is a privilege: your race, background, and/or socioeconomic status protect you from worrying about or being affected by national and local policies. It takes hope to take action. We would not bother doing the hard things if we did not have hope. Hope is a fighting virtue. Hope moves us.

Besides development assistance, the Trump 2.0 Administration has also targeted science and international studies, which have been the foundation of American power for 75 years. It's time to take collective action to do the hard things. Choose country over party. Challenge the orthodoxy through open dialogue with one another. Expose your mind with dissenting views. Listen to others to understand, not to reply. Be discerning about what you consume online. Get out of the echo chamber. In the words of Maria Ressa, without facts, truth, and trust, we cannot have a shared reality, and we can't solve any problems -- let alone existential ones such as global warming that may soon exceed the 1.5 °C limit set in the Paris climate agreement.

The U.S. check and balance is currently being tested on so many levels. Americans need to be critical of anyone's unchecked and unaccountable access to decision-making power, even if that includes the richest man in the world. After all, St. Paul warns "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).

If you're an American, call your elected Senators and Representatives on the telephone. During the summer of 2023, I had a roommate from Iowa who worked in the reception on the Hill to receive phone calls directed to Iowa's representative. She reported what phone calls she received in a day, passing on the citizen's voice to the representative. This shows that while we cannot guarantee your elected Senators and Representatives would agree with you, we can be sure that they listen to you.

As Abraham Lincoln put it, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." I hope Americans, including Secretary Rubio himself, prioritize logic, reason, and evidence over personal interests, choosing sanity over blind loyalty.