George Bush And Barack Obama Team Up To Slam President Trump

After more than six decades of global aid work, USAID was officially shut down and folded into the State Department—prompting rare public criticism from former President George W. Bush and others.

Key Facts:

USAID, created by President John F. Kennedy, officially ceased operations and was absorbed into the State Department.
George W. Bush joined Barack Obama and Bono in a farewell video call with agency staff on Monday.
Bush criticized the rollback of HIV/AIDS programs started under his presidency, which reportedly saved 25 million lives.
Obama called the shutdown a “colossal mistake” and praised the agency’s long-term global impact.
Elon Musk had previously labeled USAID a “criminal organisation,” aligning with the agency’s targeting under spending cuts.

The Rest of The Story:

On Monday, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was formally shut down and merged into the State Department under Senator Marco Rubio’s oversight.

The agency, launched in 1961 by President Kennedy, was intended to promote U.S. security by supporting humanitarian and economic growth efforts abroad.

In an emotional video call, former President George W. Bush addressed thousands of staffers, defending USAID’s work—especially the HIV/AIDS initiative started during his administration.

“Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you,” Bush said in a recorded message.

Former President Obama, mostly silent during Trump’s second term, called the decision a “tragedy” and a “colossal mistake.”

Musician Bono, a longtime global aid advocate, joined the farewell, calling agency workers “the best of us.”

The videoconference marked the end of USAID's 63-year run as an independent agency before its absorption into the State Department. https://t.co/hAT6XbKN9b

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 30, 2025

Commentary:

When George W. Bush speaks now, it’s like hearing from a different man than the one many of us supported two decades ago.

He rarely had a bad word to say about Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or even Kamala Harris.

But now, suddenly, he finds his voice—to criticize Donald Trump.

Bush once stood as a symbol of Republican leadership.

Yet his legacy is becoming more defined by silence in the face of left-wing overreach and open hostility toward the America First agenda.

It’s hard to respect a man who saved his strongest criticism for those trying to undo the mess he helped create.

The HIV/AIDS program he’s so proud of may have saved lives, but it came with billions of taxpayer dollars funneled into a bloated bureaucracy.

USAID had long been accused of inefficiency and mission creep, turning from aid into nation-building gone wrong. Its shutdown was overdue.

Bush’s warm alliance with Obama and a globalist rock star like Bono tells you everything about where his loyalties lie now.

His emotional appeal wasn’t to American workers, but to a government agency more focused on Africa and Asia than Appalachia or Arizona.

The fact that Elon Musk branded USAID a “criminal organisation” may sound extreme, but it speaks to a growing distrust of unelected, unaccountable government bodies.

Reshuffling it under the State Department, led by an elected official’s appointee, brings at least some accountability.

As for Obama, his crocodile tears over “opening U.S. markets” via aid programs ignore the countless American communities left behind.

His policies prioritized international development while U.S. manufacturing collapsed and inner cities crumbled.

And Bono? A millionaire musician using a poem to defend bureaucrats who never faced a ballot box.

These are the kinds of voices who are “heartbroken” over losing influence—not ordinary Americans who want secure borders, strong infrastructure, and a government that works for them.