Plus: What USAID Really Did in Ukraine

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Trump Gutting of USAID Moves on to Killing Its Contracts Plus: What USAID Really Did in Ukraine Jim Swift Feb 12   READ IN APP   Recently in The Bulwark: BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: The Right to be Woke JVL: The Nature of Crisis 🔐 JOE PERTICONE: Trump’s Latest Loyalty Test: Cancer Research Funding Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it. Join now TONIGHT at 8:30 PM ET: Founders Town Hall SAM STEIN: Trump Gutting of USAID Moves on to Killing Its Contracts THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGAN terminating hundreds of the United States Agency for International Development’s contracts and awards on Tuesday, according to internal documents reviewed by The Bulwark and multiple people familiar with the process. The exact number of awards and contracts terminated—and what functions they covered—was not known. But one of the people familiar with the process said it would impact “a variety of different countries and sectors” and involved not just future contracts but existing ones. The initial number of proposed terminations, the person said, was 800, though the final figure was whittled down after USAID leaders pleaded their case for maintaining certain functions and funding. READ THE REST. Join now WILL SALETAN: Donald Trump Is Delusional AMONG THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY—those of us who acknowledge Donald Trump’s prodigious history of false statements—there’s a longstanding debate. Some think Trump knows better and is simply lying. Others think he’s sincerely delusional. Trump’s latest sitdown interview, taped on Sunday with Bret Baier and aired at length by Fox News on Monday, strongly supports the delusionality theory. And that’s bad news for America and the world. READ THE REST. 🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧 Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Tom Malinowski: Fight the Power, Dems [YouTube] WTF 2.0 with JVL: Are We In A Constitutional Crisis? Across the Movie Aisle: The Quiet Terror of 'I'm Still Here' Just Between Us: He's Nuts and He's President 🔐 Bulwark+ Live: AP is Banned from Oval Office Event Over 'Gulf of America' Kash Patel Allegedly Lied in Confirmation Hearing Over FBI Firings Bannon Pleads Guilty for Border Wall Fraud, MAGA Goes Knives Out NYC Mayor Adams Case Dismissed After Kissing Trump’s Ring Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice. Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ. 📣Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here. Our 🎥YouTube offerings are the free-versions of shows, and they do have ads. ✍️Also: Did you know that every podcast has a transcript for B+ members? Yes! If you’re more a reader than a listener/viewer, open any podcast and the transcript button is beneath the player. Join now Bulwark+ Takes WTF 2.0: Are We In A Constitutional Crisis? Jonathan V. Last and Jim Acosta · Feb 11 Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta joined JVL today on the first edition of the pop-up series WTF 2.0. They talked about the looming constitutional crisis Trump seems intent on, Jim’s thoughts on if we’ll get through it and what some people might not know about cable news. Read full story TAMAR JACOBY: What USAID Really Did in Ukraine AMID THE TIDE OF BILGE—lies, personal smears, conspiracy theories, and other drivel—offered by the Trump administration in the last two weeks as an alleged rationale for shutting down USAID and ending America’s decades-long tradition of foreign aid, one legitimate question stands out: How exactly is foreign aid in America’s interest? Or, to put it another way: How and to what extent do we benefit from spending money to improve conditions and better lives in other countries? READ THE REST. Join now 🚨OVERTIME🚨 Happy Tuesday! Snow is blanketing the Queen City with a thin layer, though it’s coming down harder back in D.C., where any precipitation turns travel into a nightmare. Stay safe to all impacted! "Some of the things that I say will be incorrect." That’s President Elon Musk’s BS defense of lying about USAID expenditures, complete with a kid on his shoulders. Who can blame a guy for lying when he has his kid on his shoulders? We all should. The Cancer Scams That Foreshadowed MAHA… “Long before R.F.K., Jr., promised to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ wellness influencers were peddling a seductive promise of purity to the desperately sick”, writes Jessica Winter at The New Yorker. Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature... They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway. (Catrin Einhorn, NYT🎁) ‘This is Serious Business. You Better Start Paying Attention.’ “The most recent aviation disasters were not the new administration's fault. The next ones likely will be”, warns James Fallows. Becoming… A TV commercial icon. (CBS Sunday Morning) ⌚️ Dear Mr. Vice President… Please take off your Apple Watch (Watches of Espionage Join now Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message. —30— Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article. You’re a free subscriber to Bulwark+. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and ad-free and member-only podcasts, become a paying subscriber. Join now Did you know? You can update your newsletter preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletter or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here.   Like Comment Restack   © 2025 Bulwark Media 1100 Vermont Ave NW, 11th Floor, Washington, DC 20005 Unsubscribe