Chapter 1: Tomorrow’s Youth

This is a tale of the demise of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). A cautionary tale of Elon Musk, his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and his active co-conspirator, Mike Lawler.

Today’s headline:

“US judge finds Musk’s USAID cuts likely unconstitutional, blocks him from making more cuts.”

How did we get here? Trump issued a Presidential decree on January 20 for a “90-day pause” in foreign development assistance. The ensuing stream of administrative actions and litigation is well documented. Suffice it to say that USAID is now very dead, regardless of yesterday’s court ruling. Go to usaid.gov and you’ll see the relic of a February 23rd Notification of Administrative Leave. That leave since made permanent.

What is not as well documented is the prominent role played by Mike Lawler in this drama. Lawler sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), which is responsible for House oversight of foreign aid. A committee whose website banner now reads: “THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE UNITED STATES HAS BEGUN.” The committee which held a 4-1/2 hour hearing on February 13th headlined “The USAID Betrayal.”

The days leading up to that hearing were filled with misinformation propagated by Musk, who posted with glee on February 3rd, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” And by the Chairman of HFAC, Brian Mast.

Enter Mike Lawler to support the cause. He sat down with Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on February 12th, the day before the hearing for a preview.

As is Lawler’s way, especially when appearing on a left-leaning network, he started with a demonstration of his fair-minded approach. He extolled the virtues of the USAID-administered PEPFAR program (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), calling it “probably one of the best soft power accomplishments of the United States’ foreign aid program ever.” More on PEPFAR and Marco Rubio’s so-called waiver for humanitarian relief in a future post.

Lawler then turned to some of the other expenditures by USAID:

“For instance I uncovered over $3M to a rap artist in Gaza producing anti-Israel antisemitic songs. Is that the best use of American taxpayer dollars?”

Note a couple of Lawler techniques here. One is to highlight what “I uncovered.” The other is to reduce facts to a provocative misleading sound bite, and to frame his position in a way that nobody could disagree.

So what was that about $3M to an antisemitic rap artist? Lawler’s interview left me with the impression that USAID funded the production of antisemitic rap videos to the tune of $3M. He had issued a press release two days earlier on the topic, where he cited a single source, an article in the New York Sun. The fuller context is that the money went to a Palestinian nonprofit organization called Tomorrow’s Youth, where the referenced rapper is an executive director. The nonprofit’s stated mission is to “support refugees and marginalized communities toward building resilience and mental well-being amidst conflict,” and their web site identifies a number of related programs. Not enough for me to conclude that the money was used to promote radical ideology. Certainly not to produce antisemitic rap videos.

OK, so there’s that. The more significant point is that this is $3M out of a $40B+ budget. And it’s the only example cited by Lawler of a troubling USAID expenditure. Lawler closes the interview by accusing USAID of promoting “woke” ideology.

So there you have a couple more rules of Lawler. Cite the exception as the rule. Pull the needle out of the haystack, say “see what I found,” then insist on burning the hay stack. Or alternatively, just call it “woke”, a GOP pejorative that nobody can define, and shut it down.

On a personal note, I started calling and messaging Lawler’s office daily on this topic starting February 5th, expressing my concerns and asking for his position. I received his written response on March 7th, long after the effective death of USAID. And it said little more than what he told Joe Scarborough.

Much more to say about the hearing on February 13th, where Lawler was especially Lawleresque. To be continued.