~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 𝙏𝙍𝙐𝙈𝙋/𝙈𝙐𝙎𝙆 𝙆𝙄𝙇𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙐𝙎𝘼𝙄𝘿, 𝙐.𝙎. 𝙁𝘼𝙍𝙈𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙍𝙄𝙀𝘿

                              

Donald Trump and his omnipresent sidekick Elon Musk are working as a tag team to disband the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), perhaps thinking like some Americans that it's "just money down a rat hole."

Musk, the world's richest man at $421.6B, is trying to shut down a government agency with an annual budget of $42.45B, calling the USAID a "criminal organization" while saying "it's time for it to die."

Musk's pal, President Donald Trump, claims that U.S. foreign aid is "massive," which may be why polls indicate many Americans think foreign aid constitutes around 25% of the U.S. budget, when it's actually less than 1%.

If you visualize wheelbarrows filled with U.S. cash being pushed to countries around the world, you don't understand how USAID works.  Much of that aid comes in the form of food produced by U.S. farmers, which is why Aaron Lehman, the president of the Iowa Farmers Union said Iowa plays an important role with USAID working with the Department of Agriculture to ship corn, soybeans and other commodities to countries overseas.

The crops purchased through USAID, about $2B annually, not only provide income for U.S. farmers, but help stabilize prices in the industry.  

Trump has frozen the funds for USAID, putting thousands of workers on leave, as part of his America First program, but this will likely end up hurting the agriculture industry in states like Iowa.