“Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough expressed their concerns Friday about President Trump and Elon Musk‘s plan to cut the number of employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Referencing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comment that the Trump administration’s drastic USAID cuts have been the “only way” they can get the agency to cooperate, Brzezinski said, “It seems to me there are lawful ways to do this, as opposed to how it’s happening.” In response, Scarborough conceded, “There’s nothing easy about [balancing the government budget]. There’s government waste out there.”
However, the MSNBC personality took issue with Musk and Trump’s seemingly heedless approach to bringing down federal spending.
“The question is not whether they’re going to find waste, fraud and abuse in the government — of course they’re going to find waste, fraud and abuse in the government! And this is something they should do,” he continued. “But they need to do it legally and they need to do it transparently. There’s no transparency here that I can see.”
Speaking further on the alarmingly fast pace at which Musk and Trump are trying to cut government costs, Scarborough noted, “There are people inside the White House that I’ve spoken to that are still guessing and curious about what’s happening and the speed [with which] these changes are taking place with really no organization.” The “Morning Joe” host warned that acting so impulsively could have devastating consequences not only on the quality of living for many around the world, but also on the United States’ global foothold.
“It’s extraordinarily dangerous: these government systems opened up and opened in a way that will allow China, allow Russia, allow Iran, allow our foreign adversaries to possibly gain access to these systems,” he cautioned. “I think layer after layer after layer of security could just be gutted.”
While he admitted that foreign aid is not traditionally a statistically popular topic among American citizens, Scarborough went on to argue that he doesn’t believe Americans really want agencies like the USAID gutted as badly as Trump and Musk intend. “I still have confidence in the American people that they don’t want children to die in Sudan. They don’t want Malaria spreading all over Africa,” he insisted. “One fighter jet here buys a hell of a lot of life-saving aid and a lot of prevention for diseases that would spread across the globe.”
“On top of that, as far as bang for your buck goes, if you look at not only the goodwill that the United States gets out of these programs, but the intel that we gain,” Scarborough added, “it is a great value that we saw after World War II [and] we see time and time again. Hearts and minds are changed and the United States’ power grows exponentially. What is right actually leads to might.”
“This is a strategically smart thing to do — moving forward with this program,” the “Morning Joe” host concluded. “Cut the waste, fraud and abuse, but God, don’t gut it. And if you’re a Democrat, why not defend it?”
