Two weeks ago, we published an opinion piece presenting a robust biblical case for the continued provision of foreign development aid by the United States federal government. Last week, our friend and colleague Joe Toly offered a reply to our piece which he characterized as “a healthy dose of pragmatic realism.” He argued that a nation’s primary duty is to its own citizens and that this precludes the longstanding generous provision of foreign development aid. As he put it: “the purpose of the United States government is to quite literally put ‘America First.’”

We believe that this argument fails to adequately dismiss our interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan, which teaches that neighborliness extends wherever mercy can be shown—regardless of nationality. Additionally, the argument relies on wrong assumptions about the amount of money spent on foreign aid; according to President Trump’s Secretary of State, we spend $40 billion on aid, not $70 billion. 

Despite these shortcomings, Toly’s piece inspired us to consider a secondary argument for foreign development aid, one which wrongly supposes that his high view of nationalism is biblical. Instead of reiterating our moral case, we present a realist argument that America’s national interests are compromised by President Trump’s attempts to freeze and defund foreign development aid. This is the “America first” case for foreign aid.

In 1962, less than a year after USAID was founded, President John F. Kennedy spoke privately to a group of Overseas Mission Directors in the White House Rose Garden. President Kennedy laid out his vision for the nascent agency to its leaders: 

“[USAID] is a tremendous source of influence for a president of the United States in exerting the power of this country in a way which serves our security and the long range security of the countries that are involved.” 

Though the Cold War context of President Kennedy is in America’s past, influence is still important. In the modern world, conflicts between America and our rivals are rarely waged with bullets—they’re waged with influence. By influence, we mean proximity to power. Heads turn when an influential person walks in the room. Foreign leaders listen when an influential nation speaks. 

Influence allows us to eliminate threats before they arise. Each mouth we feed turns another gun away from American soldiers. Every child we vaccinate deprives anti-American extremists of a potential recruit. Every job that aid programs help create is an alternative to transnational crime. 

For example, the AP news reported that USAID funding was used to disrupt cocaine supply lines by destroying coca plantations in Peru. They paid farmers to replace coca with other crops. But now, because of President Trump’s foreign aid freeze, the payments for farmers to replace these crops have stopped. 

The argument that Toly presented was based on the idea that America is a “declining hegemon for decades” but the case we present here is inherently optimistic about the future of continuing American power and prosperity. As Toly himself notes, the United States remains “objectively the most powerful country in the history of the world.” However, exercising that power comes with a cost. It’s far cheaper and easier to get other countries to agree with America through influence than to rely on coercion alone. 

Even our rivals know that this strategy works. China’s flagship aid infrastructure program, the “Belt and Road Initiative,” has provided infrastructure aid to 147 countries and Russia routinely provides food aid to spread influence in Africa. 

In his speech to USAID’s first leaders, President Kennedy argued that “The people who are opposed to aid should realize that this is a very powerful source of strength for us.” Providing foreign development aid makes America safer and more respected. Dismantling it is not only against Christian morals (as we argued in our first piece), but it is directly contrary to American national interests. If President Trump sincerely wants to put “America first,” he should allow our aid programs to continue making America great.