MAGA INTERRUPTED: the freezing of USAID left 600,000 dead
I have always held to the conviction that Americans are the most generous people on earth—and I still do! America never needed to be made GREAT AGAIN; being great has always been part of their DNA.
This is not a biased opinion; the evidence is overwhelming. In 2024, Americans gave a record-breaking $592.5 billion to charity, far surpassing other nations. By comparison, the United Kingdom donated about $19.5 billion and Canada contributed $11–12 billion (a figure in decline). Globally, charitable giving reached an estimated $2.3 trillion in 2024, and Americans alone accounted for 27.7% of that total—more than a quarter of all charity worldwide. Truly remarkable.
Then came 24 January 2025. In one single day MAGA – Maintain Americas Generosity Always – changed to MAGA – Make America Great Again. An outward vision of care and charity turned inwards to local wealth and prosperity. On the very first day of his second term, Donald Trump froze all U.S. foreign aid. His executive order halted most humanitarian and global health programs, including those run by USAID, disrupting efforts against HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and other critical initiatives. What made America great – their selfless generosity – was interrupted.
America’s heritage of generosity suffered a blow deeper than numbers can measure. USAID’s annual budget before the freeze that exceeded $50 billion was no more. In line with their generous spirit, private U.S. donors stepped in, giving more than $125 million within eight months to sustain critical programs. Yet this amounted to less than 0.3% of normal foreign aid—a fraction far too small to fill the gap.
On 23 January 2026, one year after Trump’s USAID shutdown, Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), along with House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (NY-05) gave account of the hundreds of thousands of deaths resulting from the Trump Administration’s dismantling of USAID and its lifesaving programs. This was their report:
“For the past 20 years, the generosity of the American people through USAID has saved 91 million lives around the globe – at the cost of less than 1% of our federal budget.
Yet, on January 24th, 2025, the Trump Administration abruptly shut down the lifesaving agency with a disastrous stop-work order that cut recipients around the world off from lifesaving care overnight. As a result, some 600,000 people have died in the past year – an average of 1,650 every day – after being cut off of lifesaving health and food aid provided by USAID – about two thirds of them children. One of those children was Evan Anzoo, a 5 year old boy born with HIV and kept alive through American health aid. After the Trump Administration cut of USAID programs overnight, Evan lost access to his HIV medication and died shortly after.
A study by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health estimates that USAID’s continued dismantling will lead to 14 million additional deaths globally by 2030, including more than 4.5 million children under five.”
CONCLUSION
Congressman Sherman highlighted a striking paradox: America, long recognized as the most generous nation in charitable giving, saw its global witness of compassion undermined in a pursuit to obtain more wealth. What Mr. Trump overlooked in his calculations is that America’s greatness has never rested on the wealth of the rich or the sheer size of its own economy. What truly made America great was its culture of generosity—a heritage of care that saved lives, sustained communities, and preserved hope across the world.
MAGA is not about money or power alone; it is about embodying a spirit of compassion woven into the nation’s DNA. When that culture of care is interrupted by domestic economic decisions, decades of progress can unravel in an instant. America’s true strength lies not in its financial might, but in its willingness to give, to serve, and to stand with the vulnerable.
The world is united in prayer that a domestic vision of the new MAGA will be interrupted and that what made America great in the past – a generous culture of giving – will Make America Great Again.