USAID’s green energy programs may have done more “harm” to developing nations than anything else, according to a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“I can’t think of anything that’s harmed the developing world more than the climate agenda,” said Max Primorac, a top USAID official under President Donald Trump’s first administration, when asked about programs that had run afoul of American interests throughout the world.
“The strong counter-China infrastructure that we developed over at USAID was simply dismantled by the next administration,” he told lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing entitled, “USAID Betrayal.”
“[USAID] has pushed all of these countries, especially in Africa, to go green. Solar, wind, EV: who produces all of those materials? It’s China. Then, on top of it, we tell them, ‘No, you can’t develop your own fossil fuel industry because it’s, it’s anti-green.’ So, what happens? They can’t generate the revenues to create good jobs at home. They can’t generate the revenues in order to finance their own health, education and other needs.”
Primorac claimed that green energy infrastructure in developing countries “increases the price of energy.”
According to Primorac, 19 of the top 20 countries receiving USAID are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, securing aid from the CCP in exchange for influence.
Primorac said that developing nations “want more trade, they want more investment,” but “resentment” is building in conservative countries who don’t want “woke things.”
The Trump administration, upon assuming office, instituted a 90-day pause on all foreign aid. Trump fired USAID’s inspector general Paul Martin this week after he wrote a report claiming Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s efforts to dismantle USAID had prevented him from conducting oversight on unspent aid of up to $8.5 billion. Martin’s report claimed that about $500 million worth of food aid is at risk of spoiling as it sits in ports while USAID staff in other nations have been called back and placed on leave.
