Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk have tied the Trump administration’s rollback of the US Agency for International Development to recent electoral advances by right-wing candidates in Latin America. Their argument, made on X after Brazil’s first-round presidential vote, casts the agency’s former democracy and aid programmes as political intervention rather than assistance.¹

Trump Jr. said that “since we shut down USAID, the left has not won a single presidential election in Latin America.” He argued that taxpayer money had funded NGOs, democracy programmes and activist networks that “conveniently always supported the same side,” adding: “They called it aid, but it was electoral interference.”¹ He shared a map of regional results, although Brazil remained unresolved: Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva advanced to a May 25 runoff after the May 4 first round.¹

Musk advanced the broader allegation, saying USAID had engaged in “election interference and regime change around the world,” which he said had caused major conflicts.² The agency stopped directly implementing international assistance programmes on July 1, 2025, after the Trump administration’s restructuring; remaining programmes were moved to the State Department, while other functions were ended.²

Supporters have echoed the same causal reading. A repost circulated by Brazilian journalist Allan Dos Santos said USAID’s disappearance coincided with conservatives beginning to win across the region, and suggested its dismantling had exposed foreign influence that had sustained the left.Allan Dos Santos (allanconta5)³

The available accounts present the political shift as the consequence of USAID’s withdrawal, rather than documenting an independent causal assessment. They also leave the regional picture incomplete, particularly with Brazil’s runoff still ahead.