Dec. 10, 2025
By Jacob Collins Dodd
Staff Writer
Beginning on Oct. 28, Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in modern history, ravaged the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands with strong winds of up to 138 mph. The World Bank estimates that the hurricane caused nearly $9 billion in damage and left at least 106 dead.
Hurricane Melissa did not have to become a mass-casualty disaster. For years, international aid programs served as a buffer against the devastation of natural disasters and suffering.
Within hours of being sworn in for his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order to pause all foreign assistance. By July 2, the United States Agency for International Development officially closed.
Supporters of cuts to USAID argue that providing foreign aid is “unaffordable” while borders are unsecured and homelessness is rampant. However, USAID accounted for only 0.4% of federal spending annually before it was dismantled.
Without warning, the Trump administration abruptly ended life-saving outreach to vulnerable countries. Had it remained fully operational, pre-positioned relief supplies and deployed rescue and response teams from USAID would have reduced Hurricane Melissa’s impact, particularly in hard-hit areas like Haiti and Jamaica, where communication, health and infrastructure systems were already fragile.
One of the countries that received significant help from USAID is South Sudan, where disease and famine are already endemic. For years, funding from USAID helped maintain the country’s disease surveillance, health clinics and nutrition programs, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
After Trump branded USAID “woke” and “wasteful” spending and eliminated it, life-saving care collapsed in at-risk, underdeveloped countries. Health clinics closed, treatments and vaccinations were halted and food and water aid disappeared.
Trump thought it would be a better idea to reallocate taxpayer funds to construct a 90,000 square-foot $300 million gold ballroom at the White House. He also hosted an extravagant Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his private estate, Mar-A-Lago, in Florida.
Trump has deliberately created and continues to foster disinterest in honest institutions that preserve public health, trust and stability.
At the same time, his administration’s USAID cuts are linked to an estimated 655,400 deaths worldwide, two-thirds of them being children, according to the live analytical model ImpactCounter.
Throughout his presidential terms, Trump has sought to undermine and attack longstanding organizations, statutes and institutions, particularly left-leaning ones, and attempts to manipulate public opinion by spreading misinformation and lying.
On Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order formally withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization — following his same anti-science playbook that contributed to hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths — while blaming the WHO for mishandling it in 2020.
ILLUSTRATION BY MARIAH ALLEN
During the pandemic, Trump actively delayed federal response and clinical trials, endorsed unvetted and unsafe remedies in press briefings and dismissed legitimate scientific advice even though the WHO’s coordinated efforts and vaccinations saved millions of lives, according to estimates cited by the National Library of Medicine.
Trump has deliberately created and continues to foster disinterest in honest institutions that preserve public health, trust and stability. This isolationist streak, reflected in Trump’s refusal to allow USAID to maintain ties with respected global institutions, shows the administration’s abandonment of the principles of American leadership.
As the global death toll climbs and more than 5 million people struggle to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, Trump continues to indulge in grandiose displays of affluence and detachment.When the president hosts extravagant wealth-themed parties and spends more than one-fifth of his presidency golfing, his priorities become painfully clear. It is evidence of a president who is aware of suffering and purposely chooses to ignore it.
