Longtime readers will recognize Pete Marocco as the guy who worked for the Montgomery J. Bennett-funded Dallas HERO nonprofit that successfully convinced voters to approve two charter amendments that require the city to give up half of its unencumbered revenue to the public safety pension, maintain a police force of 4,000, and make sure that those officers’ pay is among the highest in the region. It’s been blamed for some of the reasons Dallas is facing a budget shortfall this year and for the major cuts being discussed for next year’s budget. He was also present, and reportedly inside the U.S. Capitol building, during the January 6 insurrection.
During Trump’s first term, Marocco cycled through a few posts before landing at USAID, where he left after three months when colleagues wrote a “dissent channel” memo that was reportedly professional “but ruthless” in dissecting his job performance. When Trump returned to the White House after winning in 2024, he once again brought Marocco to USAID. Elon Musk’s DOGE team and Marocco then set about dismantling the agency. He would be gone by April 2025, but a Harvard report estimates that hundreds of thousands have likely died because aid disappeared overnight, and that number will likely increase.
With that background, I was interested in reading Nicholas Enrich’s book, Into the Wood Chipper. Enrich, who had enjoyed a lengthy career at the agency, eventually became a whistleblower as it became clearer that the Trump administration...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...