Claims

Dismantling USAID while simultaneously proposing to take over Gaza reconstruction eliminates the very agency and institutional capacity that would be necessary to actually rebuild Gaza, demonstrating short-termism and inability to see how pieces fit together in foreign policy strategy.

The freezing of USAID assistance has tangible immediate consequences for people around the world who depend on foreign assistance for protection from terrorism, disease prevention, and rising global influence of China, thereby undermining US geopolitical strategy even as it purports to counter China.

Most of the USAID budget is devoted to health and food security, with smaller portions to some programs Rhodes would defend (like civil society support), and what matters is how a future development agency will conceive its mission rather than whether USAID itself is dismantled.

The United States stopped Ebola from reaching America by building a huge network of clinics in West Africa through USAID, demonstrating that development agencies pursuing effective governance and economies and hope do prevent terrorism and disease emergence better than counterterrorism approaches.

When designing a new international development agency, the most important question is what issues people around the world actually care about, and polling shows they prioritize education, health, science, technological cooperation, and entrepreneurship rather than counterterrorism or nuclear weapons concerns that dominate US foreign policy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's International Food Security Assessment published in September 2022 estimated that close to 70% of North Korea's population was 'food insecure.'