Dan Rodricks: Trump allies smear Baltimore-based Global Refuge’s history of humanitarian work

It wasn’t enough that the Trump administration stopped the flow of federal dollars to Global Refuge, the Lutheran organization that supports, from its headquarters on Light Street in Baltimore, refugees from war, natural disaster and famine. 

Wasn’t enough to throw the organization’s mission into uncertainty . Wasn’t enough to leave Global Refuge’s clients, some of the most vulnerable people in the world, stranded at airports while awaiting flights to freedom.

Such injury was apparently insufficient. 

So allies of Donald Trump — Mike Flynn, the disgraced Army lieutenant general and QAnon follower, and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world — publicly smeared the agency with scurrilous charges. 

Flynn, who served briefly as national security advisor in the first Trump administration before facing federal perjury charges, accused Lutheran organizations of “money laundering.” He did this in a post on Musk’s X, putting “Lutheran” in quotes and questioning the legitimacy of Global Refuge, which has been performing humanitarian work for 85 years. 

Musk, the billionaire Trump put in charge of “government efficiency,” added insult to insult by calling federal payments to Lutheran organizations, including Global Refuge, “illegal.” The richest man in the world promised to shut down the flow of “illegal payments” to Lutheran affiliates.

Flynn’s accusations were baseless, but Musk amplified them anyway, reposting the slander to his 217 million followers in an attempt to justify cutting off Global Refuge.

Finding her organization suddenly under attack, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president and CEO of Global Refuge, condemned “the false accusations being lodged against our humanitarian work.”

But she’s facing big difficulties, with the loss of millions in federal funds causing layoffs within her organization.

The draconian actions of the second Trump administration — firing inspectors general, cutting the federal workforce, cutting funds authorized by Congress, allowing Musk to make random decisions about American priorities — have been difficult to fathom. They have come fast and furious.

But most incomprehensible is the attack on non-governmental organizations, like Global Refuge, that for decades have partnered with the government to help people in crisis around the world. 

“The refugee program was shut down to new arrivals, then the State Department issued us a stop-work order halting federal support for refugees already resettled in the U.S.,” says Timothy Young, spokesman for Global Refuge. “It’s an existential threat to both the program and the entire ecosystem of community nonprofits that assist refugees.”

Before I go on, a note about foreign aid: Little more than 1% of the U.S. federal budget goes to help people in distant lands who are hungry, sick, uprooted by war and natural disasters. 

“The $71.9 billion in foreign aid that the government spent in fiscal 2023 works out to 1.2% of that year’s total federal outlays,” reports the Pew Research Center. “Since fiscal 2001, foreign aid has ranged between 0.7% and 1.4% of total federal outlays.”

So, the fiscal argument for Trump’s attack on foreign aid is specious, requiring another line of attack, thus the Flynn-Musk smear.

Not only is Baltimore the HQ for Global Refuge, but Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Committee are based here. Another Christian humanitarian organization, World Relief, and International Orthodox Christian Charities are based in Towson.

These organizations funnel millions of dollars in charitable donations and/or government grants to help resettle refugees, feed and educate children and provide medical services around the globe. They teach farmers how to grow crops. They help build safe water systems. They teach people skills for sustainable jobs. They respond to emergencies. And those who accept funds through the agency Trump and Musk want to close, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), carry out their missions in the name of the American people.

Six years ago, I met Thomas Awiapo, who worked for Catholic Relief Services in West Africa. As a child, he had been orphaned in a small village in Ghana. He was nearing starvation when he found a CRS school that offered children a hot meal each day. The food came from USAID. 

“You had ‘USAID’ written on all the bags of food and gallons of oil,” Awiapo told me. “Everything had the American flag on it. Any child saw that. … Every child knew this food was coming from some caring Americans, people who believed that helping those in need was just part of being an American.”

Contrast that with where we are today. 

In our name, the president and his billionaire patron sound retreat from the world’s neediest people. And they have done it in the harshest way.

The roots of Global Refuge go back to the start of World War II. The National Lutheran Council formed in New York to help refugees fleeing Germany and Eastern Europe. In time, the National Lutheran Council became Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and, in the late 1990s, the organization moved into the Lutheran Center at 700 Light Street. Last year, it changed its name to Global Refuge.

The Lutheran organization helped families fleeing the Soviet bloc, Cuba, Uganda, Vietnam, the Balkans and Sudan. Among the many Afghan refugees it supported were allies who protected American troops before their withdrawal in 2021. 

The future of such efforts have been suddenly thrown into grave doubt.

Years ago I read an essay that proudly presented strong evidence that America in the 20th Century was not only the world’s richest and most powerful nation but also the most decent and humane. Who would use that description now? What has happened to this country?