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Debora Cahn, showrunner of the Netflix series “The Diplomat,” and former Obama United Nations ambassador Samantha Power attacked the Trump administration on Monday amid cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Cahn and Power took part in a discussion about the state of U.S. diplomacy and the series’ latest season, along with the show’s lead actress Keri Russell, at the John F. Kennedy Forum at Harvard.
Throughout the event, they lamented the state of government since President Donald Trump took office again in 2025. Cahn described the situation in 2025 as a “funeral” in Washington.
“We go to Washington every year,” Cahn said. “Last year, it was the funeral for democracy. I had never seen so many people in a state of complete existential despair over the wreckage that was falling around them, and I think we all went home and started Googling, ‘How did you get an EU passport.'”
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Actress Keri Russell and former Obama United Nations ambassador Samantha Power. (Stephanie Augello/Variety via Getty Images; Mel Musto/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
However, she remarked that the upcoming midterm elections have provided more hope to people struggling in the “wreckage” of government institutions.
“I think as a citizen, I think we are all so exhausted by the constant barrage of, you know, somebody we talk to in Washington called them, ‘dead cats getting thrown on the table’ in the midst of the wreckage of our institutions,” Cahn said.
“We no longer have the capacity for outrage. So, I worry we don‘t have the capacity to kind of mount any kind of resistance to the crumbling of our own democracy. And so, to see people are like, ‘God, stop worrying about that, that is so last year. Move on. There are things we can do and things we will do.’ It is good,” she said.
Power took more issue with the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID, having been the agency’s administrator from 2021-2025. She added that the truly “horrifying” part of the process was the compliance of the employees.
“For all of us who watched USAID be dismantled and other agencies in the U.S. government be gutted, what was so horrifying about it was the complacency and complicity of so many people who believed in that work five minutes before,” Power said.
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Samantha Power and Debora Cahn criticized cutting funds to USAID in 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
“And the effectiveness of the people with the wrecking ball was that they did it so quickly and it really was shock and awe. And what it took away for so many, particularly those who worked at places like USAID, many of whom are here, was a sense of agency,” she said.
Power lamented a lack of “dissent” within the president’s team or from Congress, claiming it was a staple of the Biden administration.
“Whether it is the press, internal voices of debate even, not only dissent but even debate. Anything that is not just, ‘Yes, Mr. President, what a brilliant idea, Mr. President,’ that individual does not seem to get invited back to the next meeting. What does that result in? Not always, but chances are, really bad decisions, like invading a country on a false pretext and with no plan, in a manner that not only hurts the American people, the people of Iran and other countries but hurts the president,” Power said.
She continued, “This is one thing that Liz Sherwood-Randall, who was President Biden‘s homeland security advisor, worked with me in the Obama administration. We were so fortunate that we had leaders who believe that dissent made and checks and balances and arguing things out made for better decisions in the end, even if it was really unpleasant, and they would have much preferred everybody to be like, ‘Oh my God, what a great idea, Mr. President.'”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and State Department for comment.
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Samantha Power led USAID from 2021-2025 under the Biden administration and reportedly met with left-wing organizations under her tenure. (Getty Images)
Power has come under scrutiny for meeting with left-wing organizations during her time as a USAID administrator.
According to nearly 700 pages of internal calendar entries obtained by Fox News Digital in 2023, Power met with George Soros’ Open Society Foundations at least two times, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at least five times, and held meetings with several other powerful groups like the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
Fox News Digital also reported on Monday how U.S. and Latin American officials accused USAID of pushing left-wing politics and candidates around the world.
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“You have plenty of examples out there of how USAID was attempting to run its own foreign policy,” U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera told Fox News Digital.
