Exiting USAID Chief On The Pandemic, Foreign Aid, Trump's Policies

For nearly three years, Mark Green led the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in delivering foreign aid to countries in need during times of crisis, including the coronavirus pandemic.

In mid-March, Green announced that he was stepping down and taking on a new position as executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership. President Trump has asked Senator John Barrasso, R.-Wyo., to take over as the USAID acting administrator.

NPR's Rachel Martin spoke with Green, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, about the value of U.S. foreign assistance, his outlook on how developing countries will face the pandemic and what the future may hold for USAID.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Were you reticent at all to leave your job in the middle of this pandemic? I know it had been in the works, but even so, did you pause?

Over the course of a number of weeks when we first saw