Into The Wood Chipper; A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID, Nicholas Enrich, 2026
Atul Gawande, Biden’s Assistant administrator for global health, USAID:
“Established in 1961, and championed by President John F. Kennedy, USAID has been created by Congress to provide sustained, expert support for the advancement of human survival, economies, and democracy in order to foster peace and stability and to counter the adversaries of freedom. There is no such thing as a temporary pause in such work. It soon became clear that hundreds of thousands would die.”
“But the new administration only doubled down, turning the pause into a wholesale dismantling of USAID. The toll since has been staggering. Boston University researchers have conservatively estimated that, one year later, the shutdown has already killed at least three-quarters of a million people, most of them children.”
“Into the Wood Chipper is a remarkable, devastating insider account of exactly how this was able to occur. The agency was brought to its knees in a matter of a few weeks, despite being established in law. Nick Enrich was a civil servant at USAID during four administrations, two Democratic and two Republican, and as USAID’s last acting head of global health, he was a witness to the pivotal events. He makes painfully clear that, in order to destroy the agency, people at the highest levels made choices to ignore the law, the procedures, and the harm to people’s lives. Others — in Congress, the courts and in the agency itself, including Nick — were confronted with what they would do in the face of these choices. And what you encounter in this account of this tragedy is a Shakespearean range of human behavior and emotion: deceit, indifference to harm, bloodlust, thirst for power, incompetence, fear, accommodation, self-delusion, and at all too few moments, courage.”
New York Times
A Timeline of Cuts, Legal Orders and Chaos at U.S.A.I.D.
“For more than five weeks, the Trump administration has been working to take apart the United States Agency for International Development, through layoffs and contract terminations. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court weighed in on a piece of those efforts, rejecting President Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in already completed foreign aid work.”
“Here are the major actions by the administration and the courts, as well as their effects on the agency’s work force, since Mr. Trump took office.”
“For now, the case over frozen aid payments will proceed in the lower court, which the Supreme Court said should clarify what the government must do while taking into account what is feasible. Those instructions suggest the case could return to the Supreme Court.”
“But much of what undergirds the practical future for the agency remains in limbo: Most of the agency’s workers are on leave or fired, as are staff workers at many of its partner organizations. And a majority of its contracts and awards have been terminated, leaving only about one-tenth of its former total number intact.”
Nick Enrich:
“However, some researchers began to get a sense of the scale of the devastation, confirming the impacts that I had forecasted in my memo. In a study published in June 2025 in The Lancet, a comprehensive forecasting analysis estimated the impacts of the cuts to USAID on mortality in low and middle-income countries by 2030. The findings were staggering. If not reversed, the study concluded, the dismantling of USAID will in five years result in 14 million unnecessary deaths, including 4.5 million children under the age of five.”
Trump Political Appointees
Joel Borkert: Acting chief of staff, USAID
Meghan Hanson: Director of Policy, USAID
Ken Jackson: Acting deputy administrator Jan 23 to Feb 3, then acting deputy administrator for management and resources and “senior bureau official” USAID
Adam Korzeniewski: USAID White House Liason
Mark Lloyd: Assistant to the administrator for conflict prevention and stabilization USAID
Timothy Meisburger: Assistant to the administration for humanitarian assistance USAID
Laken Rapier: Senior advisor for communications USAID
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State and acting administrator of USAID starting Feb 3
Russel Vought: Director White House Office of Management and Budget
Cartwright Weiland USAID transition landing team lead
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Edward Coristine, Clayton Cromer, Luke Farritor, Gavin Kliger, Jeremy Lewin
Elon Musk Head of DOGE
No DOGE member had security clearance to access USAID computer systems