(NewsNation) — John Bolton, a former U.S. national security adviser during President Trump’s first term, tells “On Balance with Leland Vittert” that Elon Musk’s reform methods aren’t necessarily going to improve government function.
“There’s a way to undertake reform, and there’s a way to cut off your own nose to spite your face,” the former U.N. ambassador said Friday.
The Trump administration has questioned some of the programs funded by U.S. Agency for International Development, including those that they say support liberal causes, and has moved to shuffle the agency under the State Department. Musk said the agency is a criminal organization and it was “time for it to die.”
And he’s made good on the promise, with senior USAID officials placed on administrative leave, effectively shutting the agency down.
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As an alumnus of the first Trump presidency, Bolton acknowledged “there’s plenty to reform.” But actual change — like tackling American contributions to the World Bank or dissecting aid, country-by-country — is more important than simply dismantling the agency, he said.
“A carefully directed Foreign Assistance Program is an aid to national security,” Bolton explained. “That’s not what we have now, but destroying it entirely is removing a weapon in the international arena that we need.”
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Bolton advised that, by cutting programs without properly understanding their impact, Musk is “harming long-term American interests” and the Trump administration as a whole.
He added that, with DOGE’s current approach and targets, “they’re saving peanuts compared to what they need to go after.”
NewsNation’s Michael Ramsey contributed to this report.
