Mona Charen, a former staunch Republican, thinks very little of X owner Elon Musk's efforts to take a sledgehammer to the federal government.
Writing at The Bulwark, Charen described Musk's decision to completely and illegally shut down the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) as "selfish, wasteful, and cruel," as it has purportedly left both government workers and the people in foreign nations they're trying to help in a state of desperation and disarray.
"Americans who work for the agency, most of them overseas, have been thrown into chaos, and the people who benefit from the assistance have been left in the lurch," she writes. "That includes people on the verge of starvation in Yemen; AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa; people clearing landmines in Cambodia; medical workers treating people with malaria, cholera, and measles in Sudan; and those providing medicine, housing, food, and other assistance to Ukraine, among millions of others worldwide."
Charen then goes on to show how Musk's decision to shut down USAID has been damaging to Americans, not just to foreigners.
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"According to two sources with knowledge of foreign assistance activities at the Department of State and USAID, more than 475,000 metric tons of American food commodities (purchased from farmers in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa) have already been ordered and are now at risk of rotting at railroad sidings or ports," she explains. "Another 29,000 metric tons, valued at $30 million, are reportedly sitting in a Texas warehouse and cannot be shipped to needy people."
Charen concludes her column by warning that the fight over USAID isn't just about a foreign aid agency established by former President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, but over whether America's constitutional checks and balances are still operational.
"The courts will take up Musk’s attack on American benevolence in due course, and while one cannot predict with certainty how they will rule, it’s a reasonably safe bet that they will find that the Trump/Musk demolition project was illegal," she writes. "Then comes the moment of truth. It remains an open question whether Trump will obey the court. If he does, we will still have a republic. If not, we’ve turned the page."