USAID Unmasked and Undone

Elon Musk and Team DOGE made it sexy to find the Establishment’s waste, fraud & abuse at USAID. Now Trump has taken the punchbowl away—whatever will the Left and Deep State do?

Originally published in The Alabama Gazette

If you asked the average American if they think these are good uses for their tax dollars, what would they say? Even better, ask the residents of Maui, or eastern North Carolina, or Pacific Palisades what they think about:

-$969,821 for “development, democracy and innovation, inclusive development, hub programs, protecting the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals“

-$1,999,900 to strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming health care, advocate for improved quality/access to services, provide economic empowerment opportunities in Guatemala (just in 2024)

-$400,000 activities that “will contribute to the gradual and sustained reduction of the historical exclusion of Honduran youth from political debate and decision, making issues that directly affect the recognition, respect and full enjoyment of their rights” in Honduras

-$1,499,999 quote to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia‘s workplace and business communities, by promoting economic empowerment of an opportunity for LGBTQ+ people in Serbia

-$38,000,000 to Ben Wu, researcher in Wuhan, China for “bat coronavirus research.” (FYI, Dr. Wu later became Patient Zero in the COVID pandemic.)

-$45,000,000 for DEI scholarships in Burma

-$70,000 for production of a DEI musical in Ireland

-$20,000,000 for a Sesame Street show in Iraq

-$47,000 for a transgender opera in Columbia

-$32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru

-$520,000,000 for consultant-driven ESG investments in Africa

-$1,200,000,000 to “undisclosed recipients”

And these are just the tip of the USAID iceberg. As bad as the recent DOGE revelations from the Pentagon are—$600 million/year on sushi, $230,000/month on Starbucks Cinnamon Roast K-cups (while everyone was working from home) and $1,280 per paper coffee cup—at least they were getting something for the money.

I defy anyone to provide me with any concrete evidence that empowering the LGBTQ+ communities in Serbia or paying for sex change surgeries in Guatemala benefits Americans or American interests. Take your time. I’ll wait.

I’m sure that, given time, a number of “successes” for USAID could be conjured up. I don’t think it’s possible to slosh around all those billions and NOT have a few wins. But, there are embarrassing things, too. The terrorists posing for a picture inside a USAID tent. The time USAID fronted for the CIA to try to stir up unrest in Cuba with a social media app. And let’s totally not talk about all the “help” USAID gave in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, and the billions more they’ve sent there in “humanitarian aid” these last couple of years.

I can’t help but wonder why all that money had to be sent overseas when we have homeless Americans sleeping on our streets.

Naturally, the Democrats came out in force to protest President Trump, Elon and his merry band of DOGE pirates taking away their “Deep State social justice slush fund” (as Fox New’s Jesse Watters called it). They seemed totally clueless that they weren’t doing themselves any favors with their attempts to defend the indefensible. But, they’re so locked-in to their “everything Trump does is bad” mentality they just can’t help themselves.

As more and more blatantly ridiculous spending from USAID came out, more and more ordinary people started to realize just how complicated and convoluted the Swamp’s money scams really are. Agencies, Departments, NGOs, Foundations and Nonprofits all slosh buckets and buckets of tax dollars back and forth to make it nigh-impossible to track, much less hold the sloshers accountable.

But “nigh-impossible” isn’t impossible, especially in this electronic age. Elon has hired a bunch of very young, very talented kids who are very tech savvy. Most importantly, like Luke Farritor, Univ. of Nebraska Senior and winner of the Vesuvius Challenge (yeah, that’s a Big Deal), they didn’t go to the “right” schools, join the “right” clubs, or take internships with the “right” groups or people.

In other words, they are exactly what the Swamp despises and fears—outsiders who don’t understand “how things are done.” They’re nerdy Deplorables, and they’re on our side.

By all accounts, Team DOGE reached out, grabbed the USAID computers by the power cords and said “cough.” That’s how we have all these lovely examples of waste, fraud, abuse. It’s also how more and more people are waking up to just how DC’s elites keep themselves and their pet projects funded. (See HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

I don’t know if DOGE went after USAID early on by design or by happy accident (I suspect the former), but it’s been savagely effective at doing several of the things we elected President Trump to do. It’s revealed billions in spending that most Americans want to see cut. It’s shined a light on Washington’s corruption, and sent the cockroaches scurrying. It’s brought decades of CIA interventions and regime change operations into the public’s awareness, and now we’re able to talk about them without being dismissed as conspiracy theorists. It’s made fools of the Democrats who’ve been screeching in USAID’s defense. It’s revealed the funding links behind the persecution and lawfare against President Trump.

Perhaps best of all, gutting USAID has cut off the money the Left was counting on to fund the Resistance against the President’s MAGA agenda.

That’s the real reason the Dems have been out in force. That’s why they’ve been foretelling doom, gloom and damnation upon us all if Elon Musk and DOGE aren’t stopped! Look closely at the videos—you can see the fear and loathing in their eyes. They’re facing the prospect of having to push back against President Trump without all those USAID-passthrough billions, and their media lapdogs, too.

USAID has been their punch bowl, and DOGE has just taken it away. That’s why they’re so mad—everything else is just jazz hands and glitter bombs.

And guess what? One of the threads that’s unraveled out of USAID has been the yuge amounts of money the mainstream media has gotten from the government to push The Narrative™. From Politico’s reported $8 million (in reality, from FY ‘21–24, Politico raked in over $31 million from Uncle Sam—I checked; that article is in the works) to the New York Times, Reuters, AP, Bloomberg and even the BBC. 6,200 journalists, 707 news outlets and 279 media sector civil society organizations in 30 different countries—all supported by USAID.

Politico government payments FY 2021–2024, from USAspending.gov

In a strange and totally unrelated coincidence, Politico missed payroll this week, because of what’s being called a “technical error.”

Uh huh. Suuuuuure it was.

Happily, we won’t have to worry about tax dollars funding fake news any more. Thursday, President Trump ordered the GSA to cut all media contracts. I wonder who’ll miss payroll next?

While Team DOGE has moved on from USAID—the most recent round of caterwauling was at Treasury—the cat’s well and truly out of the bag. Citizen journalists (like lil’ old ME!!!) and investigators have started digging…and writing…and analyzing…and sharing what they’ve learned.

I’ve got to recommend two specifically: Mike Benz and DataRepublican (small r). Benz has been everywhere the last few days, primarily on X, but he’s all over the tube sites on interviews. DataRepublican is on X and has her own Substack. She’s written several data harvesting programs to help dig through all the government’s publicly available financial data, and she has a buddy who creates linkage-map graphics. What she’s found is nothing short of astounding, and if you really want to understand what’s going on with USA, ID and other government funding snafus, scroll through her X feed, or do your own searches from her website. (You might want to start HERE.)

As of Friday, February 7, less than 300 of USAID’s 13,000+ staffers will still be on the job. The rest will be on administrative leave as their positions are reviewed. Most overseas offices will be cut back or closed. The remains have been folded into the Department of State, where Secretary Rubio can keep an eye on them.

Naturally, a lawsuit to block this has already been filed (in the uber-liberal District of Columbia District Court, naturally), arguing that only Congress can shut USAID down.

I suspect they’ll win this case, and not just because of the venue. USAID was indeed created by President Kennedy/s Executive Order 10973 in 1961, but The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 established USAID as its own agency.

So, here’s what needs to happen: Congress must act, and soon. Congress needs to pass legislation for President Trump’s signature that makes permanent the restructuring of USAID he’s carrying out. It’s in the best interests of America and the American people.

I’m not terribly enthusiastic about Congress actually doing this, because it’s not in the best interests of the lobbyists, special interests and Deep State Blob-ites that hold and pull the strings of far too many of our Glorious Leaders. Some call that cynicism—I prefer to call it enlightened realism.

In the meantime, we can “enjoy” more revelations of financial shenanigans and malfeasance from our fellow citizen journalists. Stay tuned—this ride is only getting started!

As a good introduction to USAID, NGOs and the money slosh, I recommend you start with ChaosCoordinator’s summary HERE.

If you want to see the kind of information that’s being gathered by a fellow American, here’s one of Data Republican's threads that tracks $1.5 trillion across multiple years and has some interesting names attached, try this: https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1885711150983324009

@MikeBenzCyber, @DataRepublican, @TuckerCarlson, @npr, @zerohedge, @CNN, @TheYoungTurks, @bennyjohnson, @gatewaypundit, @statesman, @maxwelltani, @elonmusk, @realDonaldTrump, @DefiyantlyFree, @atlasshrugs, @ForeignPolicy, @idontexistTore, @iamnot_elon, @KanekoaTheGreat, @DOGE, @Randoland_us, @JDunlap1974, @RepChipRoy, @its_The_Dr, @ShadowOfEzra, @FoxNews, @nataliegwinters, @georgex1234, @LizCrokin, @stillgray, @BGatesisapyscho, @CubanOnlyTrump, @darkskepticuk, @LukeFarritor, @JustTheNews, @DCExaminer, @ggreenwald, @SaltyGoat17, @RepNancyMace and @kylenabecker were all cited in the above.

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