Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

“There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” writes St. Matthew. That couldn’t be more true in describing the panicked rage of the Democratic Party. In a collective temper tantrum, Senators Schumer and Warren joined by the usual suspects vented their fury at the Trumpkreig slashing through a divine right bureaucracy furious over its rejection by an electorate of “deplorables”.

For progressives, it is axiomatic that government should grow like the science fiction creature “The Blob” until everyone and everything is subjected to the administrative state. While Trump’s enemies cry “Fascist” they are blind that it is they who are Fascism’s acolytes. It is they who want government direction of economic and social life, it is they who punish dissent as dissenters on Covid vaccines and Biden policies quickly found out when deprived of forums and even positions. Ask traditional Catholics and Virginia parents how they felt about being investigated by the FBI for exercising their First Amendment rights. Fascism is statism and its Mussolinian lineage has been well described by historian Dennis Mack Smith.

Dems are frothing at the mouth over USAID. Trump press secretary Karoline Levitt’s list of outrageous USAID grants is shocking and ridiculous. It reads like a Monty Python absurdity scripted by the sexually obsessed: $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces, $70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic in Peru. Another nutty bit was to promote atheism in Nepal and electric vehicles in Vietnam. Is this what Democrats are defending, is their rice bowl comprised of bureaucrats who think federal employment is a rightful sinecure? Defending DEI is a far cry from aiding the destitute.

USAID was created by the Kennedy administration to thwart Soviet subversion in the third world, those days are long gone. It was to counter poverty and aid democracy. Did, or could it do it? That many “developing nations” have been recipients for years with scant improvement says otherwise. One African economist said assistance only delayed local development and enriched dictators. When the British gave the Gold Coast independence it had a functioning legislature and gold in the treasury. Within the blink of an eye, Kwame Nkrumah had turned what was now Ghana into a socialist basket case. Robert Mugabe turned Rhodesia into Zimbabwe and from an agricultural powerhouse to destitution. Africa has been such a shining success her best and brightest want to get out and come here or to Europe. The very people needed to uplift their native lands fled. Improving their economies can only be done by Africans themselves by safeguarding property rights and welcoming capitalism. Even then, tribal customs and tribal rivalries trammel advancement.

USAID metastasized into a self-serving bureaucracy whose existence by divine right has been unquestioned. It follows the Brezhnev doctrine of once a country is communist, it will always be communist. Ronald Reagan put paid to that nonsense, Trump should follow suit. Having veered from its mission of humanitarian assistance to a support program for the left’s pet interests USAID’s time has passed. Time for “the Orange Man” to have it interred.

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William Layer

Lt. Colonel Civil Affairs, USAR (ret) served twenty-six years in the regular and reserve components of the US Army. He was civil military liaison for the 260th Military Police, DC National Guard, State Public Affairs Officer, Commander of the Public Affairs unit and a counter-drug intelligence analyst. Transferring to the 352 Civil Affairs Command as monuments and archives officer, he became the Command Public Affairs Officer in Iraq as well as liaison to local Iraqi leaders and acting Secretary to the General Staff. He was instrumental in recovering photographic artifacts of the Iraqi Royal family while in Baghdad. He was wounded in action in an ambush in Feb. 2004 for which he was awarded the Purple Heart.
In his civilian career he worked primarily in Army Public Affairs and for the Air Force as historian to the presidential wing in the early Reagan administration and later for Air Force Legislative Liaison covering congressional hearings and assisting in preparing testimony for senior leaders.
His essays and reviews have appeared in the scholarly and popular press including Asian Affairs and the Washington Times. He is co-author, with Ali Wahab, of The Iraqi Royal Family, a Collection of Photographs Recovered from The Ruins of the Zuhur Palace, 2004.
A native New Yorker, he holds a BA with honors in history from Findlay College (Ohio) and an MA in history from The Ohio State University. He is a graduate of the US Army Command & General Staff College and was graduated with distinction US Naval War College with a MA in National Security and Strategic Studies.

Latest posts by William Layer (see all)

• “War crime!” say Dems, history says NO! - December 11, 2025
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