Food For Millions ROTS In Storage Thanks To Trump’s USAID Cuts

60,000 metric tons of food are rotting in storage in the United States because Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cuts to the USAID office have prevented it from being shipped to starving people across the globe. There is no reason for this to be happening, as the costs of the discarded food are going to dwarf whatever “savings” the administration thinks they are getting out of it. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

As it stands right now here in the United States and in several other countries across the globe, 60,000 metric tons of food are sitting and rotting because of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk did to the US A ID program. As we all know, one of the very first things that this administration did when Elon Musk came roaring in with Doge was to immediately stop all funding and grants of the U-S-A-I-D program and then slash and burn through the staff. That, of course, became one of the very first court battles of the Trump administration, a court battle that is unfortunately still continuing. And as that court battle continues, all of this food against 60,000 metric tons of it are sitting and rotting in storage containers and warehouses across the globe because we are not allowed to distribute it. 'cause we don't have the money to do that. Let me read you this. The rations are spread across four warehouses in Houston, Djibouti dur, uh, Durban and Dubai. And they comprises cereals, pulses cooking oil. The food valued at $98 million was intended for emergency distribution in hunger stricken regions, including Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of it will now end up incinerators or as animal feed.

Already in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, there have been multiple confirmed deaths in children of starvation. Children are dying of starvation and that food that was meant for them, that was earmarked for them with funds that Congress approved that could have saved the lives of these children who Republicans claim to love soda much is rotting. It's gonna be burned up and that that's kind of on the cusp. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not. Give it a quick smell that's gonna be turned into animal feed. People are dying across the globe of starvation and we as a country have the means to help in that. We have the food to do that. But this administration, cruel and heartless came in and said, oh absolutely. Hell no. We're not doing this. Go get a job. You lazy people and Democratic Republic of the Congo, wherever that may be, we don't even know, but you cannot have our food. Close the doors, put the lock on the shipping container and let it rot.

That is what is happening. That is what this decision from the Trump administration means. This is the effect that it's having. And nobody benefits from this. We already spent the money on the food, $98 million, just letting the people have it wouldn't have cost you anymore. Wouldn't have saved you anymore. Now we're losing money. This is why it matters, having non-ST stupid people running the country. This is why it matters to have people running the country that have a moral compass, that have a conscience, that have basic decency. But there is not a soul in this administration that has any of those characteristics and people are now dying of starvation around the globe because of that.