Trump pledges to help earthquake-ravaged Myanmar, says disaster ‘a real bad one’

SCMP | March 28, 2025, 8:54 p.m. | Original

A collapsed building in Myanmar’s Mandalay after an earthquake on March 28. Photo: AFP

President Donald Trump on Friday vowed the United States would assist Myanmar after it was hit by a huge earthquake , following a rare plea for aid by the Southeast Asian nation’s ruling junta.
“It’s terrible,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about the quake when asked if he would respond to the appeal by Myanmar ’s military rulers.

“It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping. We’ve already spoken with the country.”

But the effects of Trump administration’s deep cuts in foreign assistance through the US Agency for International Development and the State Department will likely be tested in any response to the first big natural disaster of his second term.

Sarah Charles, a former senior USAID official who oversaw disaster-response teams and overall humanitarian work under the Joe Biden administration, said the system was now “in shambles,” without the people or resources to move quickly to pull out survivors from collapsed buildings and otherwise save lives.

The huge 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had earlier invited “any country, any organisation” to help with relief, in a speech aired on state media.

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