The Real Threat to American Soft Power

Americans have all kinds of misconceptions about their government’s spending on foreign aid. They imagine it consuming vast swaths of the federal budget — surveys show they believe it accounts for roughly 25% — when the reality is less than 1%. They picture corrupt officials in distant capitals pocketing American largesse, even though most aid flows through carefully monitored NGOs and multilateral institutions. They dismiss it as wasteful, although there’s compelling evidence that American assistance has dramatically reduced hunger, disease and premature death.

This widespread ignorance explains why the majority of Americans favor President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze foreign assistance programs. It is likely the reason Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency chose the US Agency for International Development as its first target: As the most prominent disburser of American assistance, accounting for $43 billion out of a total of $68 billion in fiscal 2023, USAID was the juiciest and lowest-hanging fruit.