I am a USAID whistleblower. I've got to admit, Musk is mostly right about agency's waste

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch the author discuss this topic and more on "Jesse Watters Primetime" on Feb. 7 at 8 pm ET.

Musk colorfully said of USAID, "It's not an apple with a worm in it; we have actually just a ball of worms."  I suggest instead that USAID is better described as an apple that has become infested by worms.  During my eight years at USAID, I worked with some wonderful colleagues and together we made real impacts, but we were too frequently undermined by a sclerotic and at times malevolent bureaucracy.  USAID has many good apples, but also many bad ones who spoil the barrel, as I will detail below.  In my opinion, the ratio of good to bad apples is approximately 1:1, so the decision to fire 97% of the workforce is overzealous. 

My story, through which I became a reluctant whistleblower (Merit System Protection Board Case DC-1221-23-0102-W-1), epitomizes what Musk must rightly eliminate from the Agency.  When I became the Global Health Bureau's Acting Deputy Chief of Staff in 2020, I immediately observed the incompetence of career bureaucrats as they moved too slowly to advance a $34.5 million tranche of funding to fight COVID-19.  After I fixed this and other instances of their gross mismanagement, instead of thanking me for cleaning up their mess, the bureaucrats retaliated against me by slow-walking and then blocking a promotion for me and attempting (but failing) to fire me. 

Despite these appalling realities, to paraphrase Gen. Jim Mattis, if USAID did not exist, we would need to create it.  USAID helped win the Cold War, and has helped make the world healthier, safer, and more prosperous.  But USAID can and should be so much more than it has been, and it epitomizes how unaccountable bureaucrats can abuse their power while failing to do their duty and deliver for American and global interests.