President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have become so fixated on becoming “America First” that a batch of prepurchased high-energy biscuits will never make it into the hands of those in need.
As of Tuesday, roughly 500 metric tons of emergency food intended for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are about to expire, according to The Atlantic. Now, instead of potentially being able to feed 1.5 million children for a week, the U.S. will waste extra money—on top of the $800,000 spent to purchase it—to destroy the unviable rations.
Federal workers reportedly attempted to contact the new head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, who could pull the right strings and make use of the nutritionally dense food. Ultimately, though, their attempts were unsuccessful.
On one hand, it’s hard to argue against giving lifesaving resources to children. On the other (less rational) hand, if you ask the Trump administration, distributing food to countries like Afghanistan or Yemen could potentially feed terrorists, which is enough of a reason for them to cut off aid completely.
In April, NPR reported that USAID contracts were slashed in these countries just from the fear that they were benefitting terrorist organizations alone.
But other countries have starving children, so why weren’t the rations sent there?
While 500 metric tons of biscuits is a small number comparatively when it comes to USAID supplies, the Trump administration is heavily curtailing its assistance overall.
Rubio announced via Substack that starting in July, the Trump administration would hand out assistance only to countries that “align with administration policies,” a message that sounds oddly familiar to their ongoing battle with Harvard University, among other colleges.
As Rubio shuts the door on those in need, new projections show how this will impact those most vulnerable. According to a study published in The Lancet, upward of 14 million people are projected to die by 2030 as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID. One third of those deaths—about 4.5 million—are expected to be among children under age 5.
But this vast amount of avoidable death doesn’t seem to phase the State Department.
“You can go back and relitigate all these little decisions. That's not our focus. That's not the secretary's focus,” one state department official told ABC News when confronted with the study’s findings. “We are excited about what sort of the America First foreign assistance agenda is going to look like, and how much impact we can have moving forward.”
Nothing excites the Trump administration than unnecessary pain.
Alix Breeden July 15, 2025 at 11:30PM From Daily Kos
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