In particular, the catastrophe in Yemen — the country with the greatest number of people at risk of famine — should be an international scandal. A Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, has imposed a blockade on Yemen that has left two-thirds of the population in need of assistance. In Yemen, “to starve” is transitive.

The suffering there gets little attention, partly because Saudi Arabia mostly keeps reporters from getting to areas subject to its blockade. I’ve been trying to enter since the fall, but the Saudi coalition controls the air and sea and refuses to allow me in. In effect, the Saudis have managed to block coverage of the crimes against humanity they are perpetrating in Yemen, and the U.S. backs the Saudis. Shame on us.

Likewise, the government in South Sudan this month denied me a visa; it doesn’t want witnesses to its famine.

In the United States, humanitarian aid has been a bipartisan tradition, and the champion among recent presidents was George W. Bush, who started programs to fight AIDS and malaria that saved millions of lives. Bush and other presidents recognized that the reasons to help involve not only our values, but also our interests.

Think what the greatest security threat was that America faced in the last decade. I’d argue that it might have been Ebola, or some other pandemic — and we overcame Ebola not with aircraft carriers but with humanitarian assistance and medical research — both of which are slashed in the Trump budget.

Trump’s vision of a security threat is a Chinese submarine or perhaps an unauthorized immigrant, and that’s the vision his budget reflects. But in 2017 some of the gravest threats we face are from diseases or narcotics that can’t be flattened by a tank but that can be addressed with diplomacy, scientific research, and social programs inside and outside our borders.

It’s true that American foreign aid could be delivered more sensibly. It’s ridiculous that one of the largest recipients is a prosperous country, Israel. Trump’s budget stipulates that other aid should be cut, but not Israel’s.