At least it's transparent, like all the other things coming from the executive branch lately. And maybe that makes the damage more lasting, because people can see that US is so mired in populism that it cannot grasp how the SDGs of reducing poverty, accessing sanitation, equality, and -- dare I say -- dealing with climate change are things that ultimately help global security and thus benefit the US.

I find myself wondering if the people writing like this actually speak like that and how aware they are of how it sounds to a non-cultist. The spokesperson is a political scientist, the fact that they must know better just makes it worse.