2025-02-04
4 分钟Hi, this is Charlotte Howard, one of the hosts of Checks and Balance, our US podcast.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
Here's an article we recommend from the latest edition of The Economist.
We hope you enjoy it.
means less for voters at home.
That makes an ideal target for the America First President, Donald Trump.
But when so much assistance to so many of the world's needy disappears overnight,
as it did when the State Department ordered almost all aid to be cut on January 24th,
the harm was visible everywhere.
Clinics closed their doors.
Anti-retroviral drugs to treat those infected with HIV dried up.
Work on controlling other viruses ceased.
The clearing of landmines stopped.
Support for refugees evaporated.
The American-backed camps holding captured Islamic state fighters in Syria won a two-week waiver to keep receiving funds,
which is only somewhat reassuring.
All this was a gift for China as it vies with America for soft power supremacy.
Why would an American president, even one so careless as Mr Trump,
so wantonly damage his country's interests?
One reason is public opinion.