# In cutting USAID, Trump and Musk are demonizing patriots | Opinion

## I'm a veteran and I worked with USAID. It is essential to our national security. | Opinion

### Agency for International Development

#### Collected by 

##### Cate Klepacki
##### Opinion contributor

##### Published 5:06 a.m. ET March 1, 2025

### I joined the military and later USAID because I believed in the American spirit and knew we need both hard and soft power to protect our country.

### When I left the military in 2014, I embarked on an effort to join the ranks of America’s soft power professionals. I landed at USAID in the .

I found a community of patriots similar to those I served alongside in the Air Force – patriots and kind and generous souls who are dedicated to service and committed to promoting American ideals, a community whose mission is to save lives and alleviate human suffering in the wake of disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide.

### My colleagues at USAID are the kind of people who run toward the fire. Around the world, in the midst of humanitarian crises, they provide lifesaving aid to those most in need. And they do so because they believe in the foundational principle of humanity, which emphasizes our commonality as human beings and asserts that every person deserves to live a dignified life.

### They also understand – as  for decades have also understood – that it is  than to watch global regions descend into chaos and war and then have to deal with the consequences.

### Now, more than ever, we must remember the spirit of America. Our spirit is one of American kindness and generosity, a spirit that tied those yellow ribbons on trees across America. We are called today to turn toward our neighbors, not away.

### As a veteran and a humanitarian, I ask you to remember who we are – to think about what it means to be a city on a hill, and to remember that America is great, because we are good. We can allow those who seek to dismantle our institutions and falsely demonize our fellow Americans to succeed – or we can remember the yellow ribbons.

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