How to Kill a Country Without Firing a Shot: Trump and Musk Dismantle Healthcare in Afghanistan
By [Author Name], [Publication Name]
It didn’t take bombs. It didn’t take soldiers. It just took a signature from Donald Trump, a few cold laughs from Elon Musk, and a dogmatic obsession with “efficiency” to do what decades of war and insurgency couldn’t: bring Afghanistan’s entire healthcare system crashing down.
When the Trump administration froze foreign assistance in January and began dismantling USAID, it didn’t just cut aid. It decapitated the country’s ability to care for its sick, protect its children, and save its mothers. And now, millions are suffering the consequences.
A Silent Collapse
Over 200 health facilities operated by the World Health Organization have been shut down. Clinics in 28 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces are no longer functioning. More than 1.8 million people have been cut off from care.
This isn’t just bureaucratic failure. This is engineered abandonment.
The cuts halted maternal care, immunizations, and treatment for malaria, measles, and polio. Medical workers are turning patients away. Vaccines are spoiling. Pregnant women are dying in childbirth. Children are dying of treatable fevers.
And no one is coming to help—because Trump and Musk shut off the lights and locked the doors.
Women and Children Last
The cruelty of this policy lands heaviest, as it always does, on women and children. With Taliban mandates requiring women to have a male guardian to seek care, and USAID-funded clinics now shuttered, mothers are dying at checkpoints. Infants are dying before their names are ever spoken aloud.
Even Taliban officials admit that they lack the infrastructure to meet the population’s needs. They were relying on international support—support that was suddenly, maliciously yanked away under orders from DOGE.
Afghanistan is now staring down outbreaks of preventable diseases. And the U.S.—once a major stabilizing force in humanitarian care—is nowhere to be found.
Musk and Trump’s Ideological Experiment
The justification? “Reform.” “Sanity checks.” “Efficiency.” What it really is? A techno-authoritarian experiment in letting entire populations suffer under the pretense of draining a swamp.
Elon Musk called USAID a “criminal organization” and oversaw the shredding of its contracts and global partnerships. Trump smirked on camera about “cutting the fat.” The truth? They’ve cut muscle, bone, and lifelines. Not just in Afghanistan—but across the entire developing world.
They Didn’t Just Leave Afghanistan. They Strangled It.
It took decades to build the fragile, imperfect—but essential—web of clinics, health workers, supply chains, and care networks in Afghanistan. It took weeks for Trump and Musk to tear it down. And they still haven’t offered a single solution to replace it.
Not only is this a humanitarian disaster, it’s also a geopolitical one. As the U.S. pulls back, China and Russia are moving in. And the Taliban is being handed propaganda gold: America doesn’t care about Afghan lives. The West cannot be trusted. If we abandon people in crisis, who will believe us next time?
What You Can Do
Please tell your Members of Congress to support humanitarian aid. You can find their name and phone number here.
The U.S. foreign aid freeze has forced many frontline organizations to halt operations, impacting millions globally. Without HIV/AIDS treatment provided by the US, 6 million people could die over the next four years. Unlock Aid is raising an emergency fund with no overhead to help sustainable organizations resume their work. Please consider donating.
Because Trump and Musk have proven they can destroy entire systems without ever stepping foot on the battlefield. It’s up to the rest of us to rebuild what they’re so eager to burn.
