Many Americans are familiar with the compositions of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known by his pseudonym of Dr. Seuss. The twentieth-century author and cartoonist is best remembered for his whimsical and fantastical children’s stories, having cemented themselves in history as classics alongside the likes of Romeo and Julliet and The Odyssey. Titles such as Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat and the Hat, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are staples of American childhoods and sources of nostalgia for teenagers and adults alike.

What many people don’t know is that, prior to becoming a children’s author, Dr. Seuss was a staunch progressive who passionately rejected conservative policies and principles. An editorial cartoonist with a liberal New York-based newspaper, Geisel sketched over 500 political cartoons during his tenure, many of which on the subject of World War II, and indeed, American non-interventionism in the war against Nazism and facism. These cartoons, which bear a strong artistic resemblance to his now-famous children’s illustrations, have become characteristic symbols of progressive perspectives during the mid-twentieth century.

One such cartoon, published in October of 1941, two months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, facetiously illustrates the egotistical and merciless “America First” mindset that delayed the United States’ entrance into the Second World War for almost two-and-a-half years.

In the cartoon, a mother reads a book – entitled Adolf the Wolf – aloud to her children. The book’s spine is embellished with a swastika; its cover features a demonic illustration of a wolf. The beast’s eyes sag; its face is marred with a debauched expression as it ejects saliva from its misshapen mouth. The mother’s turtleneck sweater is embroidered with the words “America First.” Looking supremely unconcerned, she reads to her petrified children, “…and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones… but those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter.”

In the autumn of 1963, President John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID for short. The foreign aid program was tasked with providing relief to disaster-stricken areas, supporting global economic development, stabilizing and establishing democratic systems of government abroad, and implementing high-quality education systems overseas.

Today, USAID does everything from supplying prosthetic limbs to soldiers injured on the front lines of the Russo-Ukrainian War to distributing polio vaccines to citizens of impoverished areas. The program is celebrated worldwide for its use of complex famine detection systems to predict where food shortages may occur and to help to alleviate their effects. In Ukraine, USAID has helped to build underground bunkers that house schools so that children can continue learning without the persistent danger of Russian attacks. Around the globe, USAID provides poor and disabled children with clean drinking water and nutrition, as well as protections against sex trafficking and ensuring low-cost early education programs. 

But for President Donald J. Trump and his confederate Elon R. Musk, protecting children from starvation and sexual exploitation is of no real importance, a frivolous endeavor that is a gratuitous waste of taxpayer dollars. The Trump Administration has fired no fewer than 1,600 of USAID’s 10,000 employees and has put over 4,200 on leave, effectively paralyzing the agency’s ability to adequately support countries in need.

“We’ve […] effectively ended the left-wing scam known as USAID,” the President told onlookers sanctimoniously at a conference in mid-February.

So what if children perish from starvation or thirst? Who cares if thousands die of polio – it’s not like a polio resurgence has the potential to re-ignite a global pandemic! Never mind if Ukrainian children are blasted to smithereens by Russia. C’est la vie! These are, after all, foreign people, their foreign children, and their foreign problems.

This perspective is, needless to say, abhorrent, and shows a complete lack of empathy on the behalf of President Trump and his subordinates. Millions of people will be affected by the destruction of USAID, and thousands will die around the world. The idea that American lives are the only ones worth supporting is morally corrupt and, frankly, repugnant, which is why I have so little tolerance for the America First ideology. It was wrong in 1941, and it most certainly is wrong in 2025.

The Trump Administration asserts that foreign aid sends taxpayer dollars overseas, while the plights of Americans at home are ignored. This argument has never made much sense to me. It’s not as if we can assist only foreigners, or only Americans, and not both concurrently. In fiscal year 2024, USAID spent 21.7 billion dollars, a paltry 0.3 percent of the 6.75 trillion dollars the federal government spent last year. The idea that proponents of USAID care only about foreigners and not about Americans is objectively false, especially when one considers that the program’s opponents are the ones who oppose tighter gun laws and free healthcare, and dragged their feet when it came to sending aid to counter the catastrophic wildfires in California. It is clear to me that the monetary objection to USAID is nothing more than a poorly veiled straw man to disguise the American nationalism which actually fuels criticism to foreign aid.

At the end of the day, USAID is an extensive humanitarian initiative that ultimately improves the lives of millions around the globe. This is, of course, a noble and indispensable endeavor; however, USAID also functions as an invaluable vehicle of soft power. In other words, it uses appeal and attraction to achieve desired effects, as opposed to coercion and force. By improving the lives of millions abroad, a positive image of the United States is painted in the eyes of foreign citizens and leaders alike. This can – and has – equated to increased economic cooperation with the U.S., as well as a general willingness to work with the States on a myriad of issues and resolutions.

There is a problem. In seemingly every corner of the African continent, new roadways and other infrastructure projects are being built with funds from a foreign entity. Meanwhile, the same mysterious entity is helping to construct a new railway connecting Djobiti with Addis-Ababa in landlocked Ethiopia. This “foreign entity” isn’t, however, the United States. It’s China. That’s right: China, the country that poses such a significant threat to American democracy that we need to invade Greenland to thwart it. President Trump’s breakneck elimination of USAID is sure to foster American resentment and anger around the world and will only closen Africa’s existing ties to China. If China is such a threat, then do we really want the continent with the fastest growing population on Earth in league with them, one of our greatest adversaries?

With the benefit of hindsight, we look back on the 1940s today and question why the United States ever took so long to intervene in World War II. Our country, which even at the time was among the most powerful in the world, had the potential to save countless lives. Yet it took a personal provocation for us to take part in the most fatal war and genocide in human history. 

In eighty years, we may look back on this time in American history the same way we do American involvement in WWII. We will, perhaps, question why President Trump was so mercenary, why his isolationism led him to soullessly dismiss the lives of non-Americans. Ultimately, no person on Earth is a foreigner. As collective members of the human race, we all share this planet, and should treat one another as neighbors, not aliens. Turning a blind eye to dying children simply because they are from a different country is nauseating. As the richest and most powerful country in existence, it is our God-given duty to show empathy and compassion to those who are less fortunate than us, and to improve their lives to the fullest extent possible. This is a burden that we, as Americans, must always carry, and can never abandon.