To begin with, it's probably important to note people who work at the New York Times socialize with people who make a whole lot of money. That's honestly the only way to survive in New York City where a hole in the wall studio apartment costs 5000 dollars a month in rent. So, to them, these USAID workers making high six figures is probably not a great deal. To the rest of society, it sounds like a whole lot of money.
"Sheryl Cowan, 57, was making $272,000 a year as a senior VP at a U.S.A.I.D.-funded nonprofit when she was let go at the end of March 2025. Last month she had an online interview for a $19-an-hour job managing a Penzeys Spices store in Falls Church, Va."https://t.co/OGDiHFV79u
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 23, 2026
Up first is the couple EACH making high six figures working for an USAID agency:
She was fired by email while on maternity leave, given 24 hours to clear out her desk and left with three days of health insurance and no severance pay. She had worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development or related groups for more than two decades. She made $175,000 a year.
That was Jan. 28, 2025. Today Amy Uccello and her husband, who also lost his job when U.S.A.I.D. funding for his nonprofit dried up, rely on food stamps, Medicaid and a supplemental nutrition program for women and children that helps with their now 19-month-old daughter.
The mortgage on their home in Washington was until recently in forbearance, meaning they negotiated to pay less than they owed each month. But the bank has now cut them off and suggested they apply for a low-income mortgage program. “We don’t know if we’ll qualify,” Ms. Uccello said. She and her husband have applied for more than 100 jobs with no luck. Most of their friends don’t have jobs either.
Obviously, seeing a couple struggle and almost lose their house is not something anyone wishes on even their worst memory. Still, most working Americans have very little sympathy when they work really hard for MUCH less money.
Then, there is the woman who lost her other high paying job only to go and find another high paying job off of taxpayers ... this time just the ones in Virginia though.
“I feel guilty, honestly, that of all my colleagues who I know are still unemployed, I’m the one who found something,” said Sara Miner, 42, who was a senior adviser in the agency’s H.I.V.-AIDS office and previously ran health programs in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Now she helps manage health and human service programs for Fairfax County, Va.
Then, normies read stuff like this and they don't give a flip about these people losing their jobs.
“I’m a queer, brown immigrant," said Adrian Mathura, 55, a Navy veteran and a former senior U.S.A.I.D. adviser in global health who was involuntarily retired last July and is still fighting for the retirement pay he is due. “I got to do all of this incredible stuff in my life and my career, and I spent all of my adult life touting how great the city on the hill was.”
In the end, he said, “I never even once imagined I would be so betrayed by my government.”
Oh, and also, most of them admit there was a whole lot of bloat and the agency wasn't really helping people. Duh.
Many said they were still dealing with mental trauma and a loss of confidence in their professional abilities after brutal job hunts. All mourned the loss of a mission in working for an agency that has contributed billions of dollars every year for decades to global humanitarian assistance. Some cited studies estimating that cuts to the agency’s H.I.V.-AIDS programs could lead to millions of deaths, including young children.
Others acknowledged that there was bloat and waste in the agency and a need for reform. Much of the $35 billion it managed in 2024 went to Washington-based contractors, not directly to people in need overseas. The success of many projects was hard to measure.
People making $19 an hour should not have been forced to pay for this NGO welfare. It was a scandal. https://t.co/5L71HxyxE9
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) April 23, 2026
Elon should get a ticker tape parade for closing this racket down. If the New York Times thought this would help the cause of the former USAID workers, they were sorely mistaken.
