Amid the upheavals of Donald Trump’s first weeks back as U.S. president, a key point of overlap between his shredding of the Atlantic partnership and his ending of U.S. foreign assistance to the developing world has been largely ignored: the impact of these choices’ impact on U.S. information-gathering.

Both American aid and its defense assistance to old allies like Europe tend to be framed in MAGAville as something the United States simply gives away. But, of course, it’s not that simple. These expenditures weren’t gifts;, they were purchases. What the U.S. got in return was not just attention and norm-setting (as I’ve argued for CGSP before), but also knowledge.