Saturday, March 1, 2025

Here's an Idea: Some Billionaire Philanthropy

From the list of international aid programs Donald Trump the Impaler has killed, perhaps his billionaire friends would like to show their humanity by funding them, individuality or collectively. 


The programs listed Thursday by The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/health/usaid-contract-terminations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare), were part of a total USAID 2024 fiscal year budget of $21.7 billion, pocket change for Trump’s well-heeled crowd. 


As per ABC News, Trump’s cabinet is the wealthiest in history (https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968). Pair that with billionaire moguls like Meta’s Mark Eisenberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who attended and help fund Trump’s inauguration, and not to be forgotten richest-person-in-the-world Elon Musk, there’s plenty of capital that could be deployed to feed the starving, to save lives. 


So, how about it, Jeff B? Choose your program. Maybe instead of exploring space you’d like to invest some of your billions on Earth to “manage and distribute $34 million worth of medical supplies in Kenya, including 2.5 million monthlong H.I.V. treatments, 750,000 H.I.V. tests, 500,000 malaria treatments, 6.5 million malaria tests and 315,000 anti-malaria bed nets.”  


Hey Mark Z, you’re a competitive guy. Show Bezos up by taking on the $90 million contract Trump ripped up with “Chemonics for bed nets, malaria tests and treatments that would have protected 53 million people.”


And let’s not forget you, Elon. You could probably cover all 5,800 contracts USAID had. You could subtract the fraud you allege each program committed to make your contribution easier to swallow. Just to get you started, how’s about sending “a $131 million grant to UNICEF’s polio immunization program, which paid for planning, logistics and delivery of vaccines to millions of children.”


Don’t dilly-dally. Lives are being lost from lack of food and medical care throughout the Third World. Your products, your technologies, are enjoyed worldwide. Here’s a chance to help your customers and their countrymen, wherever they live. 


Don’t hesitate. Pick a program, or two.