Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Thomas Hill

To the Editor:

As I indicated in an earlier letter (February 19, 2025 edition of The Standard), Presidents Trump and Elon Musk shut down the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID) which finances overseas foreign aid, disaster relief, and international development programs.A federal judge recently ruled their actions “likely violated the U.S. Constitution multiple ways.” Although Musk falsely claimed “no one died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” people died.

One of the programs cut was PEPFAR, a program started by President George W. Bush that saved 26 million lives from AIDS. As Nicholas Kristof, a journalist on the ground in South Sudan reported, one of those who died was a 10-year-old who was infected with HIV from his mother during childbirth. 

He was unable to get his medicines due to the pause in funds. As a result, he died in late February.  The health outreach worker who managed his care said, “If USAID would be here, he would not have died.”

In South Africa, where more than seven million people are HIV positive, it has been estimated that ending PEPFAR would lead to more than 600,000 deaths over a decade in that country alone.

USAID is just one of the many programs and agencies that Trump and Musk are blindly and unconstitutionally trying to destroy. Make no mistake, the rule of law and our democratic freedoms are under attack.

Thomas Hill
Lansing/Cedar Falls