USAID, instrument of US imperialism

By Editor-in-Chief on March 18, 2025

Ang Bayan | February 21, 2025 | via Philippine Revolution Web Central—

This February, US president Donald Trump suspended the operation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and similar agencies. These agencies are directly under the US Department of State, the department that manages the imperialist state’s foreign affairs. These are conduits of funds for pro-US corporations, institutions and groups inside and outside the country.

The suspension of funds coincides with the widespread layoffs and civil bureaucracy reorganization, reflecting the worsening crisis in US politics. The Trump regime has been pushing this suspension with the aim of giving his clique control over the entire bureaucracy and reorganizing the budget to serve its own oligarchic interests and ultra-conservative agenda.

The US government spent around $30 billion for USAID in 2024, a puny amount (around 3%) compared to $886 billion in overall US defense spending. This is a US instrument of the so-called “soft power,” which is a strategy to influence the decisions of states and behavior of citizens, groups and organizations through deceptive projects. It is a form of indirect intervention, without using coercion or violence. It is used in tandem with “hard power” or direct and violent intervention, such as Central Intelligence Agency operations. The US uses both “soft” and “hard power” to strengthen its imperialist power and maintain its hegemony throughout the world.

In past decades, USAID has become an important instrument in promoting neoliberal economic policies, strengthening US cultural influence, exploiting natural resources of semi-colonies, pushing infrastructure projects that benefit US corporations and promoting US security and military interests. In countries that the US wants to control, especially in Latin America, its projects were also used for espionage and direct intervention in the internal affairs of these countries.

In the Philippines, USAID and its image-enhancing projects are used to obscure the more extensive US military aid to the country. According to reports, ₱4 billion worth of USAID projects in the country are affected this year. This fund is paired with $500 million or ₱27.5 billion in military aid that the US is set to pour in during the same period.

As in other countries, its programs in the Philippines are disguised as promoting “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” “gender rights,” and livelihood. Some of USAID’s longest-running programs have been used to suppress resistance and capitulation of the Bangsamoro Mindanao struggle. Likewise, the primary beneficiaries of these projects are private American companies and institutions that serve as are “partners” of the agency in implementation.

In reality, the US primarily funds the terrorism of its puppet state in the Philippines through aid, training, and indoctrination of the reactionary army in counterinsurgency. What it funds is the suppression of progressive and patriotic groups and individuals fighting against US imperialist domination and its puppet state.