Into the Wood Chipper, BOOK REVIEW

"Into the Wood Chipper - A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID" by Nicholas Enrich

I don't know how this book landed on my "Want to Read" list, likely from a news segment that prompted me to request it from the library. I waited several weeks for its availability. Author, Nicholas Enrich is/was a highly placed member of the Global Health division of USAID who worked under four administrations.

There were a lot of players introduced in the book, so I appreciated that there is a "Key Referenced Officials" list in the beginning.

I had followed the dismantling of USAID in real time, so I knew how the account would unfold, but Enrich's narrative helps to substantiate what I was thinking at the time, and the impact is actually worse than I expected.

The beginning of the book is a bit slow, but buckle up because as the USAID begins to crumble (literally by the hour), sadly, the book becomes a jaw dropping page turner.

On Inauguration Day, trump signed an order pausing all foreign assistance; he also withdrew from the World Health Organization. One image, just after trump's inauguration, that remains etched in my mind, and is covered in the book, was when Elon Musk was dressed in black from head to toe and he was in the Oval Office for a press release. His young son, also dressed in all black, was perched on his shoulders like a stage prop. Musk was gleefully touting about DOGE's dismantlement of USAID. There was a celebratory mood. At that time, Musk denied that there was any pause in lifesaving activities (Ebola, TB, HIV, Malaria, maternal and child health, clean water and food worldwide); with his son on his shoulders, Musk lied to the world. As we know, Rubio's waiver to allow life saving activities to continue was also a fabrication. No USAID assistance continued. Nothing. Additionally, as you may recall, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order ruling that the trump administration could not pause already established lifesaving activities. However, as we witnessed, the rule of law was ignored by the trump administration. Ultimately, all USAID assistance ended.

President Barak Obama said it best, "To many people around the world, USAID is the United States of America". The dismantlement of USAID, right out of the gate, by the trump administration 2.0 reeks of revenge! Revenge is a element of the story.

When I was only a few chapters into the book, I mentioned to my oldest daughter that I was reading it, to which she responded, "I have read and heard several negative things about USAID". Well, let's just say that her comment took me down a rabbit hole which will require additional investigation (critics have alleged geopolitical meddling by USAID - tying humanitarian assistance to capitalist restructuring, foreign interference and manipulation with American tax dollar).

Do you remember a time when you could go to a website such as www.congress.gov and you could feel a level of confidence that what you were reading was a reliable source - that is not true anymore! My daughter's concerns deserve investigation. I'll circle back to this in another book review!

My gut tells me that nothing is perfectly good or perfectly bad; the successes and scope of USAID are well documented in this book and elsewhere. It seems clear that the toll of the dismantlement of USAID is staggering. Researchers at Boston University have estimated that, one year after the cuts, at least three-quarters of a million people had already been killed by the shutdown, mostly children.

I think that this book is an important read because it substantiates the level of corruption, lawlessness, revenge, lies, and just how low the trump team is willing to go, and has gone. The fact that this inhumanity started on Day One of his second term is chilling. The cruelty depicted in the pages of this book is unimaginable. The humanitarian United States of America that President Obama once spoke of is no more.