President Trump’s characterizations of the U.S. Agency for International Development and Elon Musk’s efforts to abolish it have resurrected painful memories. Hearing a president say that the agency is wracked with “fraud” and run by a bunch of “radical left lunatics” was enough to put me in a fighting mood.

As the administrator of the agency in the early 90s, I resisted Sen. Jesse Helms’s (R-N.C.) attempt to eliminate its independence and merge it into the State Department. The result of that earlier battle was a stronger agency and one whose independence was affirmed by statute. Although it was now a statutory agency, as before, it operated under the foreign policy guidance of the secretary of State.

There is an “Alice-in-the-looking-glass” quality to Trump's and Musk's charges, because in truth, no agency in the government has more oversight than USAID.

USAID’s programs are audited constantly. An active agency inspector general and inspector general staff are constantly on the lookout for fraud. Congress’s investigative arm, the General Accountability Office conducts periodic surveys. A large legal staff assures that the laws are followed. Fraud is very rare even though the agency works in difficult environments.

The State Department adds yet another........

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