Elon Musk’s Gift to China

Over the last week, a shocking corruption has occurred right before our eyes. The richest man in the world, unelected and deeply compromised by his reliance on U.S. government contracts and complicated foreign supply chains, has almost single handedly dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the agency responsible for fighting Chinese, Russian, and non-state extremist group influence around the world; protecting America from rapidly spreading foreign viruses; and protecting global stability by responding to famines and natural disasters. Musk’s reasoning is so unhinged — most recently laughably calling USAID a “criminal organization” — as to clumsily mask his likely real motivation: to protect and advance his own personal financial interests.

The dismantling of USAID has been breathtaking in its speed and ferocity. All USAID workers around the world will be placed on administrative leave at the end of this week. The website has been scraped from the internet, removing droves of public data about USAID’s programs all over the world. Finance systems to pay millions of aid workers have been shut down. American staff are stranded in dangerous places like Ukraine, Somalia, and Haiti, cut off from their security portals. The doors of the headquarters are locked, even to members of Congress. The entire enterprise is illegal and unconstitutional. A President — never mind his unelected billionaire backer — cannot shutter a statutorily authorized agency by executive action.

The work of USAID is not charity — it is strategic. Over the past 64 years, the agency has made the United States safer and stronger. As adversaries like Russia and China and non-state terrorist groups use their financial and informational might to curry favor and win allies in the Middle East, Indo Pacific, Africa, and Latin America, USAID is our counterweight. For the past week, Russia has been publicly cheering Musk’s murder of USAID. Why? They know if USAID isn’t helping Ukraine win the war, or stops tracking and answering Kremlin propaganda on Russia’s periphery, Russian influence will grow and American influence will retreat. In the Middle East, USAID’s work to counter Hezbollah is being shut down by Musk, allowing Hezbollah and other terrorist groups to grow their operating space and recruitment.

But the adversary with the most to gain is undoubtedly China. Few countries understand the value of soft power and investing in diplomacy, economic development, and humanitarian assistance better than China does. Between 2013 and 2022, Beijing invested $679 billion in infrastructure projects across 150 countries through its Belt and Road Initiative. It has financed 226 power plants in 64 countries and spent $26 billion on developing telecommunications networks. China is the world’s largest debt collector, holding close to $1.5 trillion in debt over the heads of low- and middle-income countries. The influence gained by these investments means China gets the inside track on contracts for critical minerals and ports and transportations hubs. China wants to completely control the piping of the global economy within the next quarter century, and the erasure of USAID could help make that nightmare a reality. Make no mistake, China is absolutely elated that their primary soft power competitor is choosing to sit this one out. They cannot wait to run laps around us in the Global South and buy up allies in ways the Soviet Union could only dream of.

Why is this happening? It is certainly not because there are major savings to be gained in destroying USAID. It represents less than one percent of the federal budget. The 2017 tax cuts spent more money on handouts for just four companies — AT&T, Facebook, Verizon and Walmart — than the entire USAID budget. No, USAID is being shuttered to benefit Elon Musk personally. Tesla makes half its cars in China, and right now Musk is in a fierce competition with Chinese-government subsidized industries in batteries, solar, and space launches that he is losing. Musk needs favorable treatment from China in order to remain the world’s richest man. It would stand to reason that Musk, who once pledged that his companies would “follow core socialist values” in order to win business in China, is offering up the dismantling of USAID — a constant thorn in Beijing’s side — as a peace offering to get the deals and treatment he needs.

Musk also wants to focus all national security cuts on USAID because he makes most of his money from Department of Defense contracts. In the last 16 years, Musk has made $20 billion from defense contracts. He denigrates any investments in non-military tools so that he can protect his subsidies in the military budget, which shockingly is never the target of Musk’s name calling.

If USAID disappears, terrorist groups will get stronger, Russia will grow in influence, pandemic disease will spread faster, and China will gobble up key parts of the global economic infrastructure. That’s an unmitigated disaster for the United States. The only interest that will benefit from this catastrophe is Elon Musk’s bank account. The closure of the agency presents not just a constitutional crisis, but a fundamental corruption.