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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump gives Elon Musk an Oval Office sendoff, crediting him with ‘colossal change'
'I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job,' Musk said after accepting a ceremonial key from the president. 'They're going to continue to be doing an incredible job.' Advertisement He left a searing mark on the federal bureaucracy, including thousands of employees who were fired or pushed out. Some government functions were eviscerated, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had provided a lifeline for impoverished people around the world. Boston University researchers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have already died as a result of the cuts. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The State Department responded by saying most of USAID's programs on HIV, known as PEPFAR, remained operational. However, the statement did not address any of the other cuts while calling on 'other nations to dramatically increase their humanitarian efforts.' Elon Musk at Friday's new conference in the Oval Office. Musk told reporters that he thinks the team at DOGE is "going to continue to be doing an incredible job" even in his absence. Evan Vucci/Associated Press Despite the upheaval, Musk also fell far short of his goals. After promising to cut $1 trillion or even $2 trillion in federal spending, he lowered expectations to only $150 billion in the current fiscal year. Advertisement It's unclear whether that target has been hit. The DOGE website tallies $175 billion in savings, but its information has been riddled with errors and embellishments. Musk had a bruise next to his right eye in the Oval Office, which he explained by saying he had been 'horsing around' with his young son. 'I said, go ahead punch me in the face,' he said. 'And he did.' Trump said Musk had led the 'most sweeping and consequential government reform effort in generations.' He suggested that Musk is 'really not leaving' and 'he's going to be back and forth' to keep tabs on what's happening in the administration. There were signs, however, that attention was already shifting away from Musk, who once appeared omnipresent in Washington. He often stood quietly next to Trump as reporters peppered him with questions about the French president (he's great), Joe Biden's autopen (it's bad) and the potential for pardoning Sean 'Diddy' Combs (he'll look at the facts). When Musk was asked about the impact of tariffs on Tesla — something Musk has expressed concerns about in the past — Trump jumped in to answer. Musk, the world's richest person, recently said he would reduce his political donations. He was Trump's top donor in last year's presidential campaign. Trump appeared eager to end Musk's service on a high note. 'This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way,' Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. 'Elon is terrific!' As a special government employee, Musk's position was designed to be temporary. However, he had speculated about staying 'indefinitely,' working part time for the administration, if Trump still wanted his help. Advertisement Musk has brushed off questions about how DOGE would continue without him, even suggesting it could 'gain momentum' in the future. 'DOGE is a way of life,' he told reporters recently. 'Like Buddhism.' Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.
Yomiuri Shimbun
4 days ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
With Trump Back, Japan Must Expand Foreign Policy
Four months into his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has stunned both the American people and the wider world by his administration's rapid-fire actions, which include forcefully deporting immigrants and enacting major reforms of the federal government via the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. On the foreign policy front, he has delivered a shock by effectively abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on global warming and the World Health Organization. At the White House, Trump also had a spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sending chills down the spines of many people around the world. There were fears that the Trump administration might try to push Ukraine to capitulate to Russia, in accordance with Moscow's wishes. Then, in early April, Trump announced plans to impose 'reciprocal tariffs' on almost every country and region. He set off a global panic when he added that Washington would impose additional tariffs on about 60 countries and regions with which the United States has large trade deficits. The world is being swayed by the superpower that is the United States and is struggling with how to respond to the Trump administration. This is especially true for Japan — the United States is its one and only ally and its largest target for investment abroad. It is only natural for Japan to view its relationship with the United States as the most important. However, there are more countries in the world than just the United States. Japan is now faced with the question of how to develop a comprehensive and proactive foreign policy that takes into account the entire world while maintaining appropriate relations with the United States. Actually, Japan already has the answer in its vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). While focus has recently shifted away somewhat from this concept toward immediate Japan-U.S. relations, this is a vision that not only can endure but could prove vital during the Trump era. Though the world economy is showing signs of slowing, there are economies that have managed to sustain high growth rates and display clear signs of dynamism in their economic development. These are the coastal regions along two oceans, from the Western Pacific to Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East and over to Africa, that is, the Indo-Pacific. Japan's future economic growth depends on how closely it will connect with this vast area. China is increasing its military presence in this region, including by enhancing its military strength in the Taiwan Strait. Peace in the Indo-Pacific is essential for Japan's security and economic prosperity, as well as for the development of the global economy. Buy-in from major players The vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific has been backed by major players in the region, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia and India. The European Union and the United Kingdom, too, share the view that the Indo-Pacific is important. In a world where U.S. actions are increasing uncertainty, this vision of FOIP has become a good insurance policy for many countries. For its part, China also views the Indo-Pacific as important, especially for its Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to create a massive economic bloc. However, China's loans for infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific are now on the decline. By contrast, Japan's assistance is expanding in scale, and aid projects have been completed in quick succession. So, Japan's focus on a Free and Open Indo-Pacific has had real world results. Japan regards its relations with Africa and Pacific island nations as an essential part of its Indo-Pacific vision. Since 1993, Japan, the United Nations and the World Bank have co-hosted the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), with the ninth summit set to be held in August in Yokohama. Through the TICAD process, Japan has extended infrastructure support to help address Africa's development challenges as well as innovative technical support in various fields, including agriculture, education and health. In recent years, Japanese companies have become increasingly willing to invest in Africa. As for Pacific island nations, Japan has hosted the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) since 1997. The 10th PALM summit was held in Tokyo in July 2024. Japan's detail-oriented support tailored to the challenges of each partner country has earned a high level of trust. Expanding aid Now that the Trump administration has terminated most of the USAID programs, Africa and Pacific island nations are hoping for more aid from Japan. Unlike USAID, Japan's development approach is not based on large-scale grants in aid. It is unrealistic for Japan to take over U.S. financial assistance. Still, Japan is capable of expanding its effective support. Of course, if we are considering a comprehensive strategy for Japan abroad, we should look beyond the Indo-Pacific. In my opinion, Japan will be able to make its strategy more comprehensive by strengthening its foreign policy toward Europe, inland Asia and Central and South America. Relations with Europe will become increasingly important. Cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is essential for security in the Indo-Pacific region. To that end, it is necessary to demonstrate Japan's willingness to cooperate toward the future reconstruction and security of Ukraine. The EU's member countries and the United Kingdom share the same perspective with Japan on global challenges such as global warming. Japan should join hands with Europe to provide leadership on climate change, while keeping in mind that the Trump administration is extremely passive on this issue. Turning to inland Asia, it is clear that Japan's relations with Mongolia and Central Asian countries are important. Located between Russia and China, these countries tend to be strongly influenced by their goliath neighbors, but they also harbor a strong desire to improve ties with other major powers. For Mongolia and Uzbekistan, Japan is the largest provider of official development assistance (ODA), and both countries value their relationship with Japan. In August 2024, then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had to cancel a planned trip to Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after the Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first Nankai Trough Earthquake Extra Information advisory for a megaquake. Another tour of inland Asia by the prime minister should be arranged as soon as possible. And we should not forget Japan's relations with Central and South America. In March, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Japan as a state guest. Japan's ODA has been well received in the region, having supported soybean production in Brazil and salmon ranching in Chile. There is also room for cooperation via multilateral diplomacy, given that many countries in the region share democratic values with Japan and are home to people of Japanese descent. Taking a broad view in this way, it becomes clear that Japan should pursue proactive, not reactive, diplomacy based on what I call a 'FOIP+++' vision extending its arms toward Europe, inland Asia and Central and South America. Proactive diplomacy could offer a better way to deal with the Trump administration. Akihiko Tanaka Tanaka is president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a post he took up in April 2022 for the second time after his first stint from 2012 to 2015. He also served as vice president of the University of Tokyo from 2009 to 2012. He was president of the Tokyo-based National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) from 2017 to March 2024. The original article in Japanese appeared in the May 25 of The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Trump's Second Term Is Already Devastating Many of His Most Loyal Supporters
Donald Trump has always divided the world into friends and enemies. In the first category are those who support him, praise him, and pledge their loyalty; in the second category is pretty much everyone else. When it comes time to distribute the spoils, his friends are rewarded and his enemies punished. At least, that is, the friends that matter. One group of incredibly loyal Trump supporters has, however, been shown the back of his hand, especially in the first 100 days of his second term: rural voters. Americans who live in areas of low population density far from metropolitan centers are not homogeneous (a quarter of them are non-white), but have been collectively at the core of Trump's base since 2016. That Trump is so adored in rural America is one of the most remarkable facts about his political career. After all, rural voters are supposed to be keenly attuned to cultural affinity; before they'll vote for a candidate, we've been told so often, they have to know that he—and it's almost always going to be a 'he'—understands their lives, their communities and their values. It wouldn't hurt if he put on some overalls and helped out with some farm chores, or chatted about commodity prices and crop yields down at the grain elevator. Yet this son of New York City, born into wealth and privilege, who spends hours on his hair and wouldn't know which end of a cow to milk, probably gets more loyalty among rural voters (at least white rural voters) than any politician in American history. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump got 62 percent of the rural white vote in 2016 and 71 percent in 2020. (While we're awaiting comprehensive data from the 2024 election, it appears that Trump did at least as well, if not a bit better, in these parts of the country than he did four years before.) And how has Trump repaid that support? Is he lavishing benefits on rural folk to show them how appreciative he is of their steadfast loyalty? Quite the opposite. Not only has he done nothing to materially improve the lives of rural people, his policies—especially the attacks on government that he and Elon Musk have unleashed—are falling particularly hard on rural Americans. The number of vital programs that have been cut, crippled or outright eliminated is almost too large to list. He dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which used to buy billions of dollars worth of food from American farmers, while his trade wars have already led to predictable retaliation in the form of China stopping purchases of American agricultural goods. He gutted the Agriculture Department's Rural Development office, threatening projects that offer support to rural communities around the country, closed offices at the Environmental Protection Agency that work to prevent pollution in rural areas, and is cancelling research grants to scientists studying the effects of that pollution on rural children. The brutal cuts to Medicaid that Republicans are contemplating to pay for his tax cuts will be devastating for rural hospitals, nearly 200 of which have closed or drastically reduced services in the last two decades. He's planning a broadband heist that would deprive rural residents of high-speed fiber internet, instead giving Musk billions to provide the overpriced and mediocre Starlink service. And many rural communities rely on immigrant labor—both documented and not—to sustain farms and food processing plants, work many native-born Americans avoid; Trump's crackdown on immigration could leave many with worker shortages and missing the economic sustenance those immigrants provide. When he has bothered to talk to rural people, Trump has long offered the same empty platitudes and patter. Earlier this month he brought a bunch of miners to the White House to make the same empty promise he did in 2016, that he'd bring back lost jobs and restore the communities of coal country. (To be clear, his grand plan to scale back some coal plant regulations likely won't have much impact.) There are fewer coal jobs today than there were when he took office in 2017, and there will probably be fewer still when he leaves in four years, given the forces of automation and competition from cheaper natural gas and renewables. But when my co-author Tom Schaller and I traveled to rural communities around the country reporting our book White Rural Rage, people told us the same things again and again about Trump: 'He gets us.' 'He speaks our language.' Trump may not know much about rural people, but he understands their darkest feelings: their resentment, their hatred, and their anger. In many rural places that have seen population loss, a lack of economic opportunity and the ravages of the opioid crisis, those feelings are raw. Trump realized that as long as he keeps picking at those scabs and laying blame for the scars they leave elsewhere—liberals, urbanites, 'woke' professors and protestors, racial minorities—he'll keep winning rural support even if he doesn't lift a finger to solve rural problems. In fact, solving those problems might blunt the anger that feeds Trump's movement. So, then, the assault he has brought to rural America in these first 100 days is a new order of magnitude. Will it break through, finally convincing the people who have long backed him so fervently that he was never on their side in the first place? Don't bet on it. When Trump takes away the government programs they rely on, it'll be 'Washington's' fault, not his. When his tariffs tank the economy, it'll be Wall Street 'elites' or somebody else. One thing they won't do is put the responsibility on the leader in whom they put their faith. That would mean admitting that they'd been played for fools.
7 days ago
- Health
US aid kept many hungry Somali children alive. Now that money is disappearing
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The cries of distressed children filled the ward for the severely malnourished. Among the patients was 1-year-old Maka'il Mohamed. Doctors pressed his chest in a desperate attempt to support his breathing. His father brought him too late to a hospital in Somalia 's capital, Mogadishu. The victim of complications related to malnutrition, the boy did not survive. 'Are you certain? Did he really die?' the father, Mohamed Ma'ow, asked a doctor, shocked. The death earlier this month at Banadir Hospital captured the agony of a growing number of Somalis who are unable to feed their children — and that of health workers who are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. support disappear under the Trump administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development once provided 65% of Somalia's foreign aid, according to Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the former director general of the Ministry of Health and now a government advisor. Now USAID is being dismantled. And in Somalia, dozens of centers treating the hungry are closing. They have been crucial in a country described as having one of the world's most fragile health systems as it wrestles with decades of insecurity. Save the Children, the largest non-governmental provider of health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, said the lives of 55,000 children will be at risk by June as it closes 121 nutrition centers it can no longer fund. Aid cuts mean that 11% more children are expected to be severely malnourished than in the previous year, Save the Children said. Somalia has long faced food insecurity because of climate shocks like drought. But aid groups and Somalis alike now fear a catastrophe. Former Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalin told state-run TV last month that USAID had provided $1 billion in funding for Somalia in fiscal year 2023, with a similar amount expected for 2024. Much of that funding is now gone. A U.S. State Department spokesperson in a statement to the AP said 'several lifesaving USAID humanitarian assistance programs are active in Somalia, including programs that provide food and nutrition assistance to children," and they were working to make sure the programs continue when such aid transitions to the State Department on July 1. The problem, aid workers say, is the U.S. hasn't made clear what programs are lifesaving, or whether whatever funding is left will continue after July 1. The aid group CARE has warned that 4.6 million people in Somalia are projected to face severe hunger by June, an uptick of hundreds of thousands of people from forecasts before the aid cuts. The effects are felt in rural areas and in Mogadishu, where over 800,000 displaced people shelter. Camps for them are ubiquitous in the city's suburbs, but many of their centers for feeding the hungry are now closing. Some people still go to the closed centers and hope that help will come. Mogadishu residents said they suffer, too. Ma'ow, the bereaved father, is a tailor. He said he had been unable recently to provide three meals a day for his family of six. His wife had no breast milk for Maka'il, whose malnutrition deteriorated between multiple trips to the hospital. Doctors confirmed that malnutrition was the primary factor in Maka'il's decline. The nutrition center at Banadir Hospital where Ma'ow family had been receiving food assistance is run by Alight Africa, a local partner for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, and one that has lost funding. The funding cuts have left UNICEF's partners unable to provide lifesaving support, including therapeutic supplies and supplemental nutrition at a time when 15% of Somali children are acutely malnourished, said Simon Karanja, a regional UNICEF official. One Alight Africa worker, Abdullahi Hassan, confirmed that the group had to close all their nutrition centers in several districts of Mogadishu. One nutrition project supervisor for the group, Said Abdullahi Hassan, said closures have caused, 'tragically, the deaths of some children.' Without the food assistance they had taken for granted, many Somalis are seeing their children waste away. More than 500 malnourished children were admitted to the center for malnourished children at Banadir Hospital between April and May, according to Dr. Mohamed Jama, head of the nutrition center. He said such increases in patients usually occur during major crises like drought or famine but called the current situation unprecedented. "The funding gap has impacted not only the malnourished but also health staff, whose salaries have been cut,' he said. Fadumo Ali Adawe, a mother of five who lives in one of the camps, said she urgently needed help for her 3-year-old daughter, malnourished now for nine months. The nearby nutrition center she frequented is now closed. 'We are unsure of what to do next," she said. Inside that center, empty food packages were strewn about — and USAID posters still hung on the walls.
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
US aid kept many hungry Somali children alive. Now that money is disappearing.
The death earlier this month at Banadir Hospital captured the agony of a growing number of Somalis who are unable to feed their children — and that of health workers who are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. support disappear under the Trump administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development once provided 65% of Somalia's foreign aid, according to Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the former director general of the Ministry of Health and now a government advisor. Now USAID is being dismantled. And in Somalia, dozens of centers treating the hungry are closing. They have been crucial in a country described as having one of the world's most fragile health systems as it wrestles with decades of insecurity. Advertisement Save the Children, the largest non-governmental provider of health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, said the lives of 55,000 children will be at risk by June as it closes 121 nutrition centers it can no longer fund. Aid cuts mean that 11% more children are expected to be severely malnourished than in the previous year, Save the Children said. Somalia has long faced food insecurity because of climate shocks like drought. But aid groups and Somalis alike now fear a catastrophe. Advertisement Former Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalin told state-run TV last month that USAID had provided $1 billion in funding for Somalia in fiscal year 2023, with a similar amount expected for 2024. Much of that funding is now gone. A U.S. State Department spokesperson in a statement to the AP said 'several lifesaving USAID humanitarian assistance programs are active in Somalia, including programs that provide food and nutrition assistance to children,' and they were working to make sure the programs continue when such aid transitions to the State Department on July 1. The problem, aid workers say, is the U.S. hasn't made clear what programs are lifesaving, or whether whatever funding is left will continue after July 1. The aid group CARE has warned that 4.6 million people in Somalia are projected to face severe hunger by June, an uptick of hundreds of thousands of people from forecasts before the aid cuts. The effects are felt in rural areas and in Mogadishu, where over 800,000 displaced people shelter. Camps for them are ubiquitous in the city's suburbs, but many of their centers for feeding the hungry are now closing. Some people still go to the closed centers and hope that help will come. Mogadishu residents said they suffer, too. Ma'ow, the bereaved father, is a tailor. He said he had been unable recently to provide three meals a day for his family of six. His wife had no breast milk for Maka'il, whose malnutrition deteriorated between multiple trips to the hospital. Doctors confirmed that malnutrition was the primary factor in Maka'il's decline. Advertisement The nutrition center at Banadir Hospital where Ma'ow family had been receiving food assistance is run by Alight Africa, a local partner for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, and one that has lost funding. The funding cuts have left UNICEF's partners unable to provide lifesaving support, including therapeutic supplies and supplemental nutrition at a time when 15% of Somali children are acutely malnourished, said Simon Karanja, a regional UNICEF official. One Alight Africa worker, Abdullahi Hassan, confirmed that the group had to close all their nutrition centers in several districts of Mogadishu. One nutrition project supervisor for the group, Said Abdullahi Hassan, said closures have caused, 'tragically, the deaths of some children.' Without the food assistance they had taken for granted, many Somalis are seeing their children waste away. More than 500 malnourished children were admitted to the center for malnourished children at Banadir Hospital between April and May, according to Dr. Mohamed Jama, head of the nutrition center. He said such increases in patients usually occur during major crises like drought or famine but called the current situation unprecedented. 'The funding gap has impacted not only the malnourished but also health staff, whose salaries have been cut,' he said. Fadumo Ali Adawe, a mother of five who lives in one of the camps, said she urgently needed help for her 3-year-old daughter, malnourished now for nine months. The nearby nutrition center she frequented is now closed. 'We are unsure of what to do next,' she said. Inside that center, empty food packages were strewn about — and USAID posters still hung on the walls.
