By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Bush, Obama and a tearful Bono fault Trump's gutting of USAID on agency's last day
preview.jpg
FILE - Bono poses for photographers at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 17, 2025. - photo by Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration — and singer Bono held back tears as he recited a poem — in an emotional video farewell on Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday.