A Pro-Life and Pro-Family U.S. Foreign Aid Strategy, by Jakub Grygiel

By Jakub Grygiel, First Things, March 7, 2025

Over the last few weeks, Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has publicized several examples of wasted taxpayer money, including funds devoted to foreign aid. In many cases, this aid was just cash thrown away in distant lands (for example, funding “net-zero emissions goals” in Vietnam). But at worst it undermined the stability of states we are supposed to help, spreading abroad the latest iterations of woke ideology, from DEI directives to an ever-mutating spectacle of sexual preferences. This woke imperialism was the perfect example of stupidity, as defined by economic historian Carlo Cipolla: It brought losses to others as well as to us.

But foreign aid has a role in our foreign policy. It can be a tool to shore up allies and partners that otherwise may become open to hostile advances. China and Russia are lurking along the long Eurasian frontline, happy to subvert and co-opt Western states whose societies may be divided and whose economies are brittle. …

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