WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and U.S. Senate Appropriations Committees, released a statement on Monday after President Trump unveiled a National Security Strategy that calls for an aggressive and confrontational military and economic approach, while virtually ignoring foreign assistance, diplomacy, and development programs.

“President Trump fundamentally misunderstands how to use the tools at his disposal to advance America’s national security. He says retreating from the world puts America first, but the implosion of American support for efforts to advance human rights, democracy or health will directly lead to a more dangerous world. What the president doesn’t understand is that State Department and USAID programs don’t owe their existence to our charitable benevolence, but to our self-interest and national security. Instability, corruption, poverty, disease and chaos in far reaches of the world often give rise to the despotic rulers and terrorist organizations that directly threaten the United States.”

“Using every tool at our disposal – both military and diplomatic – is the only smart way to forge a world that is safe for Americans. Our global adversaries understand this, and we used to – but I’m very worried that the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy deliberately ignores it, and to our peril.” 

Earlier this year, Murphy blasted the Trump administration’s proposal to cut State Department funding. He also criticized President Trump’s proposal to gut assistance for developing countries and to fold the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) into the Department of State. 

Murphy is author of “Rethinking the Battlefield,” a comprehensive proposal containing specific recommendations to dramatically increase the United States’ non-military footprint abroad by nearly doubling the U.S. foreign affairs budget – including the State Department and USAID – with an emphasis on funding for international development, additional foreign service officers, anti-corruption efforts, countering propaganda, crisis response, and humanitarian relief.

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