In a move that surprises absolutely no one with a functioning frontal lobe, the Trump administration has decided to perform its latest act of bureaucratic necrophilia on the corpse of American foreign aid. The State Department, currently acting as the high priesthood of the 'America First' cathedral, has confirmed it will block roughly $30 billion in foreign assistance from subsidizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and 'gender ideology' overseas. It is a masterful stroke of performative cruelty, designed to satisfy a base of voters who couldn’t find these recipient countries on a map if their life depended on it, but who are deeply concerned that a village in sub-Saharan Africa might be learning about the nuances of non-binary identity before they have access to consistent indoor plumbing.

This is the expansion of the so-called ‘Mexico City policy,’ a piece of legislative theatre that has bounced back and forth between administrations like a syphilitic volleyball since 1984. Previously, this 'global gag rule' was content to merely police the uteri of the global poor, ensuring that no US nickel ever touched an NGO that even whispered the word 'abortion.' Now, in a fit of ideological expansionism, the administration has decided that the real threat to global stability isn't famine, warlords, or the encroaching heat death of the planet, but rather the terrifying prospect of a US-funded pamphlet explaining that gender is a spectrum. The $30 billion in play is now a hostage in a war of aesthetics, where the weapons are jargon and the casualties are, as always, the people we pretend to be helping.

Let’s be clear: the Left’s insistence on exporting Western academic grievances to the developing world is its own special brand of narcissistic imperialism. There is a profound, almost breathtaking arrogance in the belief that the most pressing need for a population struggling with basic literacy or malaria is a seminar on 'inclusive language' curated by a twenty-four-year-old Yale graduate with a penchant for sustainable linen. The 'diversity' being exported was never about the diverse needs of the recipients; it was about the psychological comfort of the donors, a way for the administrative state to feel virtuous while the actual structures of global inequality remained conveniently undisturbed. It was performative progressivism at its most hollow, a layer of HR-approved paint on the rusted hull of a sinking ship.

But the Right’s response is equally moronic, a mirror image of the very hysteria they claim to despise. By expanding the gag rule to include 'gender ideology,' the Trump administration is simply replacing one set of forced speech with another. They are not 'saving' these countries from 'wokeism'; they are merely asserting their own right to be the sole authors of the global narrative. It is the playground logic of a bully who takes his ball and goes home, except the ball is thirty billion dollars and 'home' is a country currently tearing itself apart over whether or not a cartoon pancake mascot is sufficiently masculine. They scream about 'freedom' while systematically ensuring that any organization receiving American funds must keep their mouths shut and their ideologies aligned with the current mood in Mar-a-Lago.

This policy shift is the perfect microcosm of the modern American condition: two groups of blinkered ideologues screaming at each other across a void, while the rest of the world watches in a mixture of pity and boredom. To the bureaucrats in Washington, these funds are just chips in a game of cultural poker. To the people on the ground—the ones actually running clinics, schools, and aid stations—it is a reminder that American 'generosity' is always conditional, always fickle, and always, ultimately, about us. We don't give aid to help people; we give aid to buy a mirror that reflects the version of ourselves we currently find most flattering.

Historically, empires in decline always obsess over the trivial. While the edges of the map are being redrawn by actual powers with actual goals, we are busy auditing the vocabularies of non-profits in the Global South. We are a nation that can no longer build bridges at home, so we spend our time burning them abroad in the name of 'moral clarity.' The Mexico City policy expansion is not a victory for 'traditional values,' nor is its opposition a victory for 'human rights.' It is a pathetic, squalid little skirmish in a culture war that has already been lost by everyone involved. The $30 billion will likely sit in limbo, or be diverted to some other equally useless endeavor, while the administration preens for the cameras and the opposition prepares their next fund-raising email. It is a cycle of stupidity that requires no fuel other than our own collective vanity. It would be tragic if it weren't so profoundly predictable.