The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken Washington by storm. It is churning through longstanding institutions, from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). DOGE’s defenders point to reduced wasteful spending and eliminated duplicative programs.
True, DOGE has identified indefensible federal initiatives worthy of curtailment. The problem is that DOGE appears to know only one solution to this problem: burn it all down. The ensuing disruption is imperiling core U.S. interests. Eliminating USAID endangered counter-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) programs put in place in President Donald Trump’s first term. Likewise, DOGE’s indiscriminate cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) opened the door for Beijing to poach former grantees.
Most recently, DOGE’s shakedown of USAGM has implicated the…
