{"id":66942,"date":"2025-07-03T17:58:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=66942"},"modified":"2025-07-03T17:58:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T17:58:34","slug":"bush-teams-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=66942","title":{"rendered":"Bush teams up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"432\">\n<p data-start=\"69\" data-end=\"432\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-66943\" src=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/photo_2025-07-03_18-56-38-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/photo_2025-07-03_18-56-38-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/photo_2025-07-03_18-56-38-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/photo_2025-07-03_18-56-38.jpg 526w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, alongside U2 singer Bono, addressed USAID employees Monday as the agency was officially shuttered under President Trump\u2019s administration. The closure followed investigations by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with its former head, Elon Musk, branding USAID as wasteful and ideologically radical.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"434\" data-end=\"764\">Obama condemned the decision as \u201ca colossal mistake,\u201d calling it a tragedy that undermines critical global development work. Bush, who rarely criticizes Trump publicly, highlighted USAID\u2019s role in saving 25 million lives through AIDS and HIV programs. \u201cYou\u2019ve shown the strength of America through your good heart,\u201d he told staff.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"434\" data-end=\"764\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en33.usnews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/9604127513833078854.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"766\" data-end=\"1062\">Bono recited a heartfelt poem, saying, \u201cThey called you crooks. When you were the best of us.\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting USAID administrator, announced the agency&#8217;s functions would now be absorbed into the State Department, arguing USAID had long failed to align with U.S. interests.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1064\" data-end=\"1289\">Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also praised the dedication of foreign service officers. The decision has sparked strong bipartisan criticism, with many calling for a future reevaluation of the agency\u2019s dissolution.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1064\" data-end=\"1289\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=66926\">also read&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, alongside U2 singer Bono, addressed USAID employees Monday as the agency was officially shuttered under President Trump\u2019s administration. The&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66944,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66942\/revisions\/66944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}