Last summer, reporters Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester journeyed to refugee camps in Kenya and South Sudan, some of the places most devastated by President Donald Trump’s dismantling of foreign aid. They spoke to hundreds of government and aid officials, as well as refugees, who witnessed and experienced how political appointees cut programs in arbitrary ways.
In response to a detailed list of questions, a senior State Department official said fast, drastic changes to foreign aid were necessary to reform a “calcified system.” The official also said they had a limited budget to work with, “which required some tradeoffs on what programs to continue.” |
