Move fast and break things may be fitting advice for a tech start-up. But a foreign assistance freeze that breaks U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific will be disastrous. Yet, that seems to be exactly what the Trump administration is doing. And if it does not change course, soon, we will see sustained long-term strategic damage to U.S. interests in the region.

Under the chaotic foreign assistance review, stop-work order and attempt to decapitate USAID, a clear message is being sent to our Pacific partners: The United States is no longer an enduring power or reliable partner for the region’s security, diplomatic or development challenges. That message is being received loud and clear in Beijing as well, where America’s apparent abandonment of the region creates a vacuum for China to pursue its ambitions unchallenged.

For the Pacific, where relationships and efforts to “listen, partner and deliver” matter immensely, the effects have been immediate. In the Cook Islands, home to a rich repository of critical minerals, officials are publicly discussing how this withdrawal leaves few alternatives but to rely on China. In Palau, the future of that nation’s undersea cables is now in question, and so are energy, fisheries and maritime conservation initiatives across the Pacific. One official in the region noted that “seeing the U.S. drop away … will be a big thing.”

Assistance critical to the Luzon economic corridor in the Philippines, a key U.S. ally under constant pressure in the South China Sea, is now on hold, as is the future of joint U.S.-Philippines capacity building for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief — aligned with sustaining U.S. military posture. In Vietnam, war legacy work critical to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has been tabled.

In Taiwan, officials are wondering about the implications for the island’s asymmetric deterrence capabilities against a growing China threat, and for the future of joint development projects that maintain vital diplomatic space for Taipei.

Foreign assistance programs that build closer economic cooperation with ASEAN — from health to digital security to countering China’s economic coercion to building secure supply chains — essential for economic opportunity and jobs here at home are all now at risk. For a region that measures presence as much by economic engagement as military posture, the United States needs to show up to provide an alternative if it wants to be the “partner of choice.” And if we don’t, Beijing will.

Cooperation with allies is also suffering, from U.S.-Japan-Korea trilateral cooperation, to Unlock Blue Pacific Prosperity, to partnership with Australia in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere in the Pacific. If we want partners to bear more of the development burden we need to show up, too.

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And we are also breaking lives. There are reports of deaths that are a direct result of U.S.-supported clinics closing and of increasing food insecurity in refugee camps. Partners determined to build resilient democratic societies that respect human rights and the rule of law are being left in the lurch. Support for democracy is not just a moral good, but a key enabler for building strong partnerships that benefit the United States in a dangerous world. Trust in the United States is eroding.

While there is no question that foreign assistance can be more tightly aligned with national security priorities and to better coordinate the “three Ds” of defense, diplomacy and development, foreign assistance represents a profound investment in our national security, furthering our interests and values, and is every bit as essential to American security and prosperity as hard power.

But there are right ways and wrong ways to conduct a review — and President Trump has chosen the worst path possible. A serious review would take stock and make considered judgments about what stays, what goes, and what needs refinement. Instead, DOGE has gone through the looking glass, executing first, trying later.

The Indo-Pacific is the vital strategic theater of the 21st century. We are a Pacific nation with enduring security, cultural, economic, development and diplomatic interests in the region. All that is now at risk. If the United States walks away from our Indo-Pacific partnerships, the costs will be generational.

Michael Schiffer stepped down as assistant administrator for the Asia Bureau for USAID on Jan. 20; he also was deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia in the Obama administration.