Trump officials thought USAID 'just did abortions' before gutting it: whistleblower

A bombshell new whistleblower book reveals that Trump administration officials tasked with dismantling USAID had no idea what the agency actually did, with one official admitting he assumed it only did abortions, and asked career health experts to dumb down their presentations to the level of a children's TV show.

Nicholas Enrich, then-USAID's acting assistant administrator for global health, recounted a stunning February 2025 meeting in his new book "Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID," to be published Tuesday, in which newly installed Trump officials sat down to learn about the agency they were already in the process of destroying.

"Wow, there really is so much that USAID does that we never knew," Ken Jackson said.

USAID chief of staff Joel Borkert agreed: "As a Republican, when I think of what USAID does in global health, I assumed it was just, you know, abortions."

When Enrich explained that the agency fought tuberculosis, malaria, HIV and childhood diseases — and that interrupting drug-resistant TB trials could create untreatable new strains — White House liaison Adam Korzeniewski asked him to prepare "Barney-style" slides for leadership and suggested using the term "Super TB" to hold their attention.

Korzeniewski also requested an "Outbreak"-style map showing disease spread "like the zombie apocalypse."

“If you can make one of those maps like they have in Outbreak, where it shows the red growing over time as the disease spreads? You know, like the zombie apocalypse? That would be great, very effective,” he said.

When a colleague raised maternal health programs, including emergency interventions for postpartum hemorrhaging, a Trump official dismissed them as "more of a number two" priority.

"They're asking us to dig our own grave," one career official said as the meeting ended.