Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he's proud of shutting down the US Agency for International Development, but he really shouldn't do it.
During a press conference on Friday, Rubio was asked whether he stood by his false statement earlier this year about the Trump administration's massive cuts to USAID didn't kill anyone. Instead of confessing, he doubled down on his deadly decision.
“I'm very proud of the changes we've made in foreign aid,” Rubio. said. The secretary of state said the United States would enter into more than 50 “health care compacts” with foreign countries by the end of 2025 to cut out middlemen from the nongovernmental organizations that received some of the aid.
Under these health care treaties, foreign countries would not only receive aid but also “provide a plan to become self-sufficient,” Rubio said.
The State Department has only recently begun negotiating health care treaties with foreign countries. significant reduction in US health care spending in each of these countries. Only eight health treaties have been announced so far, all with sub-Saharan governments: Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Uganda, Mozambique, Eswatini, Rwanda and Liberia.
It is unclear how the Secretary of State plans to complete 42 more deals by December 31.
But Rubio's sweeping cuts have already wreaked havoc on communities around the world. By November 2025, cuts to USAID aid to combat infectious diseases had already resulted in the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. according to Atul Gawandeformer Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID during the Biden Administration.
Center for Global Development estimated that the number of lives potentially lost as a result of current spending cuts could range from 500,000 to one million. Future spending cuts could potentially result in between 670,000 and 1.6 million deaths.
