Amid shocking revelations about waste, fraud, and abuse of American taxpayer dollars at USAID (US Agency for International Development), a federal judge has lifted his temporary restraining order, allowing the Trump administration to proceed with placing the agency’s almost entire workforce on administrative leave.
President Trump, who slammed USAID as an “incompetent and corrupt” agency, ordered a funding freeze on the agency back on Jan. 20, and tasked entrepreneur Elon Musk with vastly scaling down the agency.
The White House “intends on leaving fewer than 300 staffers on the job, out of the current 8,000 contractors and direct hires,” reported Fox News. The remaining employees will run “the few life-saving programs the administration says it will keep in place for the time being.”
“We are abandoning the world!” wailed one message on a box being hauled out by a USAID worker as she left the agency’s Washington headquarters.
But was USAID- which last year spent a whopping $68 billion—truly the global humanitarian organization it professed to be?
A preliminary investigation of the agency by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), revealed a deeply disturbing picture of USAID’s activities, the Fox News article said. Documents pointed to a history of gross mismanagement of funds, and a record of spending millions of dollars to export radical progressive ideas and anti-American ideology.
Though USAID was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to counter the Soviet Union’s exportation of communism, cumulative evidence shows that USAID helping to demolish some of the key democratic ideals it was meant to protect.
For example, USAID sent more than $900,000 to a “Hamas terror charity” called the Bayader Association for Environment and Development, the report said.
In addition, the foreign aid agency spent $45 million on DEI programs that promote racial quotas and decadent lifestyles in Serbian communities; $520 million for “environmental and social investing” in Africa; $20 million on creating an Iraqi version of “Sesame Street,” and $1.2 billion for “undisclosed” purposes.
USAID became “something that the Left saw as an opportunity to wage their culture war, not only on America, but on the entire world,” Max Primorac, who formerly served as USAID’s chief operating officer, told the Daily Signal.
“Some of the first things Joe Biden did as president was issue directives to tell everyone we’re going to use foreign aid to promote… all these crazy ideas,” recounted Primorac, who now serves as a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
“From the American Taxpayer to Hezbollah, with Love”
Records recently unearthed showed USAID had doled out thousands back in 1990 to college-educate jihadist Anwar al-Awlaki, who used the funds to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Colorado State University. He then went on to teach at Islamic mosques across the country, where U.S. officials by terror group Hezbollah came across evidence he had radicalized and recruited terrorists for future attacks on American soil.
President Barack Obama later ordered him killed in a US airstrike in Yemen in 2011.
In another shocking case, USAID humanitarian packages were found amidst a cache of weapons owned in Lebanon, according to the NY Post.
“From the American taxpayer to Hezbollah, with love,” the Post quoted Asher Freedman, former IDF soldier and currently executive director of the Misgav Institute in Yerushalayim, slamming USAID.
Asher told The Post that he found sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and explosives alongside the care packages marked “USAID” while on patrol in an undisclosed village in Lebanon where the Iran-backed Hezbollah maintained a stronghold.
USAID Funds Diverted to Politicians’ Coffers
The Trump administrations has targeted USAID’s entrenched bureaucracy as one of the most corrupt components of the deep state.
Though USAID’s annual budget is about $40-50 billion, “half of [the money] doesn’t leave Washington, D.C. 50% of that money stays here through overhead, salaries, and things of that sort,” according to Primorac.
The $20 billion that is siphoned off the top often finds its ways into the coffers of Democratic political campaigns or liberal organizations, the former USAID administrator said, drawing from the Heritage Foundation’s probe into Federal Election Commission disclosures.
“What did we find? For the State Department, it was like 94% [of political donations] went to the Left. At USAID, it was like 98% that went to Leftist politicians and causes,” Primorac said.
“And then we started looking at all of the partners, the international NGOs, the contractors, and at all the destinations where USAID billions and billions are going,” Primorac continued. “The vast majority, well over 90% of the political donations, were going to the Left.”
“These people have been misusing taxpayer money as a slush fund to finance their own people across the federal government,” he contended, summing up the modus operandi at USAID in one word: “Corruption.”
Trump’s executive orders freezing USAID spending and gutting its global workforce proves “there’s a real leader in the White House, and he means business,” Primorac concluded. “The era of baloney is over.”
Trump: Stop Sending Foreign Aid to Countries that Hate Us
In a review of USAID’s recent history, a Fox News report said the agency has faced allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Donald Trump’s second administration.
In a scathing Oct. 24 letter to then USAID administrator Samantha Power, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sounded the alarm about “the likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023, according to the report.
“As I predicted would happen from the outset,” Sen. Cotton wrote, “credible reporting indicates that Hamas terrorists have diverted this aid; indisputable evidence demonstrates that the aid was always at high risk of diversion,” he continued, pointing to U.S. aid that was delivered to UNWRA, which he said has ties to Hamas.
[Trump ended funding to UNRWA in 2018, when his first administration described the UN agency as an “irredeemably flawed operation.” Biden reinstated the funding but halted it in March of 2024 for one year, after glaring evidence surfaces of UNWRA’s participation in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres.]
Cotton pointed an accusing finger at the Biden-Harris administration for the “likely misuse,” voicing disgust that “in all likelihood, the administration has prolonged the Gaza war, allowed aid to flow to Israel’s enemies, and misused taxpayer funds.”
“Your agency announced approximately $336 million in additional humanitarian funding for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria,” the senator wrote. “UNWRA, a major USAID partner before October 7, remains a chief conduit for this humanitarian assistance in Gaza despite extensive evidence of its ties to Hamas.”
The letter cited an acknowledgement from the United Nations that “Fateh al-Sharif, a Hamas leader in Lebanon killed in an Israeli airstrike, was employed by UNRWA—proving the senator’s contention that USAID was indirectly supporting Hamas.
USAID denied Sen. Cotton’s charges, insisting it never funded UNRWA and claiming it “works closely with the Government of Israel to assist with the coordination of all humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.”
But Cotton was unyielding in his charges. He pointed out that that responsibility for American taxpayers’ money being appropriated by UNWRA through USAID lies squarely with USAID administrator Samantha Power.
“If a terrorist front organization like UNRWA is the only ‘distribution system’ in Gaza, Ms. Power should reconsider sending aid there in the first place,” Cotton argued. “Our tax dollars should not fund a group that has assisted in the kidnapping and murder of Americans.”
Taxpayer Funds Sent to Chinese Labs Known for Coronavirus Research
The deeper one digs into USAID, the uglier the emerging truth.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report in 2023, quoted in the NY Post, finding that both USAID and the NIH directed taxpayer funds to American universities where the money was then re-routed to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The report found that between 2014 and 2021, U.S. taxpayer funds were also being redirected to the Wuhan University and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, which are part of the Chinese Communist Party.
The three Chinese Party-linked groups each received more than $2 million combined from USAID and NIH, according to the GAO report. It went on to note that these Chinese institutions and labs that received the funds, “conduct work on infectious diseases, including pandemic viruses, and have been singled out for safety or security concerns.”
In January, the CIA under the second Trump administration released an updated assessment on the origins of Covid-19, favoring the theory that the contagious disease was due to a lab leak and did not originate in a wet market in Wuhan, China.
This revelation has reignited congressional scrutiny into Dr. Anthony Fauci’s alleged involvement—despite his consistent denials—in funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which likely contributed to the virus’s creation.
Despite receiving a presidential pardon right as Biden was leaving office, Fauci is still vulnerable to state prosecution. [See Sidebar]
USAID Accused of Fabricating Evidence Used to Impeach Donald Trump
Investigative American journalist Michael Shellenberger was called to testify before the Homeland Security Committee last week, regarding allegations that USAID and the CIA funded the 2019 impeachment effort against President Donald Trump.
Shellenberg is a former Democrat and a former Time Magazine “Hero of the Environment.” Now, he’s released a video report that accused USAID of treason, Newsmax reported.
“USAID’s defenders say the agency is about charity and development in poor nations. It’s not. It’s a $40 billion driver of regime change abroad. And now the evidence suggests that USAID, along with the CIA, were behind the 2019 impeachment of Trump—an illegal regime change effort at home,” Shellenberger asserted.
He elaborated on how a supposedly independent investigative news organization, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) actually worked as an arm of USAID, publishing a report that stemmed from a White House whistleblower claim.
The whistleblower, who allegedly turned out to be a CIA plant, claimed Trump abused his powers by withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to dig up dirt on his then-rival, former President Joe Biden.
The whistleblower claimed to have heard from White House staff that Trump directed Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to work with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
“The whistleblower who triggered the impeachment was a CIA operative who was first brought into the White House by the Obama administration,” Shellenberger elaborated at the congressional hearing.
“Reporting by Drop Site News last year confirmed that the CIA operative relied on information obtained by OCCRP, which was aligned with USAID,” the Newsmax article said.
“The OCCRP story, which was deceptively treated as an independent, nonpartisan source, was crucial to the House Democrats’ impeachment claim, Shellengber affirmed. “OCCRP’s goals appear to include interfering in foreign political matters, including elections, aimed at regime change,” he said.
“It appears that the CIA, USAID, and OCCRP were all involved in the impeachment of President Trump in ways similar to the regime change operations that all three organizations engage in abroad,” Shellenberger noted.
“The difference is that it is highly illegal and even treasonous for the CIA, USAID, and its contractors and intermediaries to interfere in U.S. politics this way.”
In his testimony, Shellenberger reiterated other examples of USAID’s controversial actions, including its involvement in previous operations outside its professed mission.
As an example, he said that during President Barack Obama’s administration, USAID began using EcoHealth Alliance as a “pass-through organization” to funnel $1.1 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was conducting risky gain-of-function experiments.
He added that this system continued under Biden until the outbreak of the pandemic, which experts increasingly believe was caused by dangerous gain-of-function experiments.
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17 States Launch Investigation of Dr. Fauci
After receiving a last-minute pardon from outgoing president Joe Biden for any potential or actual crimes he committed, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of NIAID may have thought he was untouchable. But his troubles might just be beginning.
The man once referred to as “America’s Doctor” is now a target of an investigation launched by 17 state attorneys general, with South Carolina leading the way.
The attorneys general are using a GOP-led Congressional report released last year as the basis for an investigation into Fauci’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The report details widespread failures and potential misconduct by high-ranking government officials, including Dr. Fauci.
It draws on congressional hearings that revealed that Fauci had invented masks and social distancing out of thin air; and had forced lockdowns and experimental vaccines on millions, destroying countless lives and businesses.
The congressional report also highlights Fauci’s misleading public statements regarding Covid-19’s origins, and efforts to suppress scientific discussions about vaccine risks.
The document, Pandemic Response, Final Report, found that the Covid-19 virus was caused by a lab leak. It also found that the federal health agencies NIH and NIAID funded and oversaw gain-of-function research with U.S. taxpayer dollars at Wuhan, China, where the lab leak likely originated.
- Carolina’s Attorney General Alan Wilson who opened a formal investigation on February 5, asserted in a press release that state laws can hold Fauci accountable, even when he is shielded from federal prosecution by Biden’s pardon.
Wilson asserts that Dr. Fauci worked to discredit the lab leak theory and secretly funded gain-of- function research at Wuhan. He claims Fauci made misleading statements, concealed data and worked to crush scientific debate.
“President Biden’s blanket pardon of Dr. Fauci is a shameful attempt to prevent accountability,” said Attorney General Wilson in the press release. “If any of these findings indicate violations of state laws, we are fully prepared to take appropriate action to ensure justice is served.”
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How USAID Squandered Billions in Haiti
During his many trips to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country, activist Paul Vallas, a member of the Illinois Policy Institute, says he witnessed firsthand the abysmal failures of USAID and other international aid organizations like UNESCO and the Red Cross.
They not only failed to coordinate relief activities, but even skimmed money off the top.
Writing in the NY Post, Vallas said the story of USAID’s operations in Haiti following the island’s devastating earthquake in 2010 demonstrates how USAID operated without oversight or accountability.
“The continuing disaster status in Haiti and so many similar places is in part a product of these agencies’ handiwork,” he writes. “What happened in Haiti captures, at the very least, the incompetence — if not the outright corruption — of these international relief organizations. There is probably no more corrupt government agency than USAID,” the author writes.
Since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed as many as 300,000 people, Washington has disbursed around $4.4 billion in foreign assistance to the small island nation.
At least $1.5 billion was disbursed for immediate humanitarian aid, while another $3 billion went to recovery, reconstruction and development. Of the at least $2.13 billion in contracts and grants for Haiti-related work, less than $50 million, or 2% went to Haitian organizations or firms, the author writes.
“By comparison, $1.3 billion, or 56%, has gone to firms located in or near Washington DC.”
Skimming Money Off The Top
USAID and their NGO partners, such as the Red Cross, fail because of what Center for Global Development calls the “trickle-down” effect of humanitarian aid.
Money from donations passes through “multiple layers of connected subcontracts before it reaches those who are carrying out the projects. This all but guarantees that relief efforts ultimately fail to meet their objectives despite the considerable amounts of money spent.
Huge amounts of money are lost when charities give funds to other organizations to implement the work they had promised. For example, the Red Cross set aside some of the original Haiti funds for their own administrative fees. Then, the charities they hired took a generous cut for their own administrative fees.
“Governmental agencies such as USAID and their NGO partners and collaborators act as if they are sovereign nations — accountable to no one,” the author writes.
Little wonder USAID is so threatened by the sudden scrutiny amid the gutting of its workforce and freezing of almost of its aid operations.
