The Trump administration plans to retain only about 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to three people with knowledge of the planned cuts to the work force.

They're good at the politics of it, that's for sure.

There probably isn't a category of federal spending less popular than foreign aid. Voters think it's a huge part of the budget (it's not), and they don't feel very positively about it. If Trump can get the Democrats to go deep in the tank over USAID, it's a complete and total win for him. If you're going to slash and burn the federal agencies, you want lots of video of Democratic Reps and Senators standing in front of USAID - so that by the time you get around to CMS and DOE and NOAA, which ordinary voters might care more about, they've already had a little outrage burnout.

It's a fight he wants and a fight that benefits him. Let's see if the Democrats can lay off the high cheese...

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