Taxpayers loathe wasteful government spending, especially on bizarre programs that do nothing for them, such as transgender comic books in Peru, DEI in Serbia, and transgender operas in Colombia. These are just a few of the items the Biden administration threw billions at, leading President Trump to declare enough is enough.
With the stroke of a pen, the new boss in the White House shut down a massive purveyor of the waste: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Looking to save the $43 billion they blow every year, he locked the door to their office and sent the spendthrifts home. The move was one of the first savings identified by the new Department of Government Efficiency, a Trump campaign promise that helped propel him back into office.
USAID was started in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to administer civilian foreign aid and development assistance. In recent times, it’s been criticized as a slush fund that promotes woke ideology and lines the pockets of the deep state.
“Everything they do has to be in alignment with the national interest and foreign policy of the United States,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump appointed to take over the agency. “The attitude USAID has adopted over the years is, ‘No, we are independent of the national interest; we fund programs irrespective of whether it’s aligned or not aligned with the national interest, and that’s ridiculous.”
Trump himself said the agency had been run “by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.” The White House lashed out at a comment by Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar that the move “is what the beginning of a dictatorship looks like,” as well as Sen. Chris Murphy implying that Rubio was lying about the waste, fraud, and abuse within the agency.
“Fact,” the White House wrote, “Ending U.S. taxpayer funding of transgender comic books in Peru, DEI in Serbia, and transgender operas (whatever those are) in Colombia is not akin to a ‘dictatorship.’ It’s holding unelected bureaucrats accountable for their spending decisions.” The President took particular exception to funding that went to the Chinese Communist lab in Wuhan, where he said the COVID-19 virus was developed.
For decades, “USAID has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous—and, in many cases, malicious—pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” according to the White House, which cited these examples:
* $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
* $70,000 for the production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
* $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam
* $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
* $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
* $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
* $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
“Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban
“The list literally goes on and on—and it has all been happening for decades. Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ends now.”