Conspicuously Absent From 7.7 Earthquake Response: the US

The devastating earthquake in Myanmar is highlighting the vastly different aid landscape in the wake of the Trump administration's ascent to power in the US. As the death toll from Friday's 7.7-magnitude quake soared above 1,700, with that number expected to climb even higher, US aid has been nonexistent, according to the New York Times. USAID, which once would have led the charge, has been effectively dismantled, and sources tell the Times that only a three-person team assessment team is expected to be sent—and not until Wednesday. Meanwhile, China, Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam have already sent teams and supplies.

President Trump said the US would help, but as some of the remaining USAID staffers were preparing a response Friday, they themselves were laid off via email. Later, one of the Trump administration's appointees to USAID acknowledged in a call with officials from national security agencies that the US response to the disaster would not be what it once would have been, sources say. At the Conversation, Adam Simpson predicts that the diminished US response will cause "even more unnecessary deaths" in the earthquake's wake. (Last month, researcher and analyst Olga Lautman warned on Substack that the dissolution of USAID would leave an opening Russia and China would likely fill.)