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Josh Yardley is a Maine native who graduated from Bangor High School in 2000 and interned for Senator Susan Collins in 2003. He currently lives in the Boston area where he teaches statistics and program evaluation part-time at Harvard University.
What’s happening to USAID right now is cruel, self-defeating, and almost certainly illegal. The Trump administration, with Elon Musk as its enforcer, is gutting an agency that has spent decades making the world safer, healthier, and more stable. The cuts are being carried out by Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but real efficiency isn’t just about slashing budgets — it’s about maximizing benefits for the cost. And Musk and his team aren’t making any effort to understand even the most basic details about the programs being defunded or the benefits they provide.
Some of you may have seen posts from Musk or lists being sent around on social media mocking USAID programs that sound silly or wasteful. I saw one of these lists recently, and what struck me was how reasonable, responsible, and even vital so many of the programs listed actually are. One example that caught my attention was Sesame Street in Iraq.
Now, I’ll be the first to say this isn’t among the most critical programs USAID funds. Musk’s cuts are also stopping food aid to starving communities, halting medical supply chains that provide life-saving drugs, and defunding programs that support kids in war zones. Those are among the most urgent casualties of this reckless purge.
But Sesame Street in Iraq stuck out to me because of work I did early in my career. Nearly 20 years ago, I worked for a nonprofit that partnered with USAID to strengthen education systems in low-income countries. One project I wasn’t directly involved with but always thought was brilliant was an initiative to create Sesame Street shows tailored to local cultures and languages. When I first read about this program, I had just come from two years of teaching with the Peace Corps in rural West Africa, and I thought, wow, what a cool and creative idea for delivering education to kids in tough places!
In the years since, as I’ve studied and taught how to evaluate programs like this, I’ve come across multiple studies showing that these localized Sesame Street projects are in fact a highly cost-effective way to deliver education. In countries where traditional early childhood education is hard to provide, these programs have helped kids develop cognitive and social-emotional skills, setting them up for success. And research is clear — when kids grow up with more education and opportunity, societies become more stable and prosperous, which reduces conflict and migration pressures, directly benefiting the U.S.
But now, Trump and Musk’s allies are mocking programs like this, circulating cherry-picked budget lists that take things out of context — “$20 million for Sesame Street in Iraq,” as if that’s some absurd waste of money. In reality, these programs have been rigorously studied and shown to work. They help kids, they help communities, and ultimately, they help create a world where the U.S. faces fewer crises.
And this is just one example of so many. USAID funds programs that prevent famines and disease outbreaks before they spiral into costly disasters. It helps countries build stronger economies so they can become trading partners instead of aid recipients. It supports democratic institutions, making it harder for China and Russia to gain influence.
I understand why people worry about how money is spent, and I’m all for accountability. But gutting USAID doesn’t “put America first” — it makes the world more unstable, which ends up costing us far more in the long run. The next time you see one of these misleading lists, don’t fall for it. USAID’s work isn’t charity — it’s a smart investment in the health, safety, and prosperity of our world and America’s position in it. If you agree, call your representatives and let them know.
