Trump Destroyed American 'Soft Power' by Killing USAID

Military power isn't the only thing that makes a country powerful. Soft Power is a major way that countries shape public opinion, which provides America with massive economic benefits and fuels our exports.

A huge piece of this is USAID – the U.S. government agency, founded in 1961, which extends U.S. soft power globally and did things like literally eliminating smallpox. There certainly is criticism that USAID could operate more efficiently, but removing this avenue for American power entirely is misguided.

Trump has destroyed USAID and along with it one of the largest ways in which we remain powerful in the world, ceding this soft power to other countries and risking U.S. exports and allowing countries like China to gain power at our expense by filling the void.