The Trump administration has flagged nearly $200 million in questionable spending by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Elon Musk and his team have put in their crosshairs for cutting alleged waste and abuse.
Among the most stunning revelations from a White House list of questionable spending was nearly $10 million USAID spent on meals that went to al Qaeda-funded terrorist groups.
Then there was the roughly $75 million USAID spent on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in foreign countries.
Some of those recipients of taxpayer dollars included:
• $16.8 million to support equitable outcomes in inclusion in Vietnam.
• $8.3 million for “equity and inclusion” education.
• $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gender language.”
• $6.3 million to study men having sex with other men in South Africa.
• $6 million to advance LGBTQ principles in “priority countries around the world.”
• $5.5 million to promote LGBTQ causes in Uganda.
• $3.9 million to promote LGBTQ causes in Western Balkans.
• $2.5 million to promote inclusion in Vietnam.
• $2 million for sex changes and LBGTQ “activism” and sex changes in Guatemala.
• $1.5 million to advance “diversity, equity and inclusion” in Serbian workplaces.
USAID also spent millions to promote transgenderism through various media outlets including using $47,000 of taxpayer funds to produce a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender opera in Columbia, $70,000 for a “DEI-themed musical” in Ireland and $2 million for a “transgender comic book in Peru.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the USAID for spending taxpayer dollars on “crap.”
She said Democrats who are protesting the administration’s plan to fold USAID into the State Department should be focused on making sure Americans benefit when Uncle Sam doles out their tax dollars.
“Democrats are outraged that the American people want their tax dollars going to good uses, not stuff like this but then they’re very quiet about the fact that there are still North Carolinians and people in California who have lost everything, but in the last four years, the federal government did nothing to help them,” she said of the two states affected by natural disasters.
In addition to DEI initiatives, USAID spent millions to promote media outlets in other countries:
• $20 million to produce an Iraqi version of Sesame Street.
• $8 million to buy subscriptions to Politico Pro.
• $2.1 million to the British Broadcasting System to “strengthen the media ecosystem in Libya.”
• $1.3 million for Arab and Jewish photographers.
• $1.5 million to rebuild the Cuban “media ecosystem.”
USAID also has a $150 billion climate strategy aimed at building “an equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2030. However, it is unclear how much of that money was spent.
Also included on the list was $6 million approved by USAID to promote tourism in Egypt, a move that was authorized by the first Trump administration.
The White House has not detailed a vision for the future of the foreign aid agency.
President Trump decided to end the agency’s autonomy and make it part of the State Department, but how that will work or even if it will retain the USAID name remains to be seen.
All USAID programs have been halted and its staff around the world have been placed on administrative leave. Mr. Trump said that he will decide the future of the agency later.
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we’re getting them out. USAID, run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he said.
USAID’s offices have been closed to workers, a move that was protested on Monday by both its employees and Democratic lawmakers. The Democrats said shuttering the agency was illegal and unconstitutional. They argued that it was created by an act of Congress so the president can’t just get rid of it through executive fiat.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said shuttering USAID “is essentially putting lives at risk around the world.”
USAID is supposed to send money and other resources to parts of the world affected by conflict and poverty. Its programs range from providing relief for refugees fleeing natural disasters and war to literacy campaigns in the Middle East to disease vaccination initiatives and drought-resistant seeds to African farmers.
The agency also pays to improve sanitation systems in India and teach entrepreneurial skills in Guatemala as well as provide low-interest loans to families in Africa.
Source: Washington Times
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