Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration - and singer Bono recited a poem - in an emotional video farewell Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Obama called the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID "a colossal mistake."
Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday.
The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a videoconference, which was billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with The Associated Press.