I previously wrote about “Fighting the Middle State,” and at least on that count Trump has not disappointed. He has left the Democrats showing slavish devotion to the federal bureaucracy and the “NGO” sector which employs a veritable army of the useless and over-educated. Most notably, the Trump administration is doing its best to end the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and has also tried to shut down the Voice of America propaganda network—though at every step the Federal Judiciary has attempted to block these moves. Critics cry out that not only will this cause mass death but that it is the end of U.S. “soft power,” but few of those liberals ask if these programs work or deliver anything for the American people—or for that matter, people in the recipient countries.

To hear the liberals tell it, USAID and other such programs are largely based on the goodwill of the global elite, but simultaneously are good for U.S. business and function as soft power. At best, when used properly, these programs primarily function to employ administrators, enrich pharmaceutical companies, and keep agriculture commodity prices up by buying excess birdseed off of farmers to ship to foreign countries. In countries receiving aid it prevents economic development and breeds dependency and corruption.

You will notice that in the discourse about USAID being cut there are countless people who work for the aid programs crying, but none of the recipient governments imploring that the aid continue. In fact, many seem relieved, a sentiment described by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. Among the better intellectuals who cover Africa, it is acknowledged that there will be pain in the transition away from aid dependency, but all acknowledge that even if it has some immediate benefits in the big picture it also has immense downsides…

Watching these levers of the permanent state finally come under attack is like a dream to many of us who have opposed the government. No matter how many bad things the Trump Administration has, we have been waiting decades to see anyone view these programs as what they are: nefarious instruments of financial interests and a Mandarin class designed to subvert the public will at home and abroad. It is true they are a small amount of the budget and will do little about the debt, but the cost is not actually the issue—just an insult—but that the things they do are terrible and corrupt our society and the world and further do much to make people hate us. Unfortunately, our overpowered judiciary is doing everything to force the public to keep funding and employing these losers, so it seems that we are rapidly moving from fighting the middle state to fighting the judicial oligarchy: c’est la vie.