Even a short list of how USAID spent our money is outrageous *UPDATED*

This is a fast-moving story, so I have added updates where appropriate.

President Kennedy founded USAID in 1961 via an executive order. Its stated intention was to be a clearinghouse for disbursing State Department funds. These funds, in turn, were to be used for advancing American interests during the Cold War. The goal was to raise Third World countries’ economic standards so that they would not fall prey to Soviet depredations.

That made sense. Indeed, USAID could have been used in the 21st century to help advance US interests to stop Chinese depredations through its Belt & Road initiatives (China’s version of USAID.)

However, that’s not how USAID has been managed (or, rather, mismanaged). As more information comes out about USAID, we’re learning that it’s been used to advance leftist ideologies, everything from climate change to LGBTQ+ promotion to anti-religion initiatives to antisemitic and anti-Israel attacks to partisan attacks on President Trump. Large sums of money were disbursed to terrorists, already wealthy people or organizations, geopolitical enemies, and branches of foreign governments.

AI image by Fotor.

In other words, the whole thing was a giant leftist grift intended to destabilize the West—and all using your money to do so.

Thankfully, Elon Musk is right that it can be shut down. What one president creates via executive order, another president can delete via executive order. This was never a legislatively authorized entity. It was always meant to be nothing more than a convenience for the State Department. However, when it becomes a hard-left “convenience” with 9,000 employees and a $50 billion budget, it’s time for it to go.

To give you a sense of just how bad USAID has become, here’s an incomplete list, in no particular order, of its expenditures in the 21st century:

Paid $20 million to the hard-left Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a 501(c)(3) that manages at least $200 million in annual fund disbursements. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, in turn, funded Bill Kristol, a wealthy man whose raison d’etre since 2016 has been to destroy Trump. It also funded myriad organizations pushing leftist ideologies such as BLM, climate change, DEI, illegal immigration, and LGBTQ+. The fund is especially notable for its commitment to destroying Israel. UPDATE: This chart shows how the money was laundered to Kristol's organization:

Paid $1,999,900 to Asociacion Lambda to strengthen transgender organizations in Guatemala.

Paid $1,499,999 to Grupa Izadiji to advance LGBTQ+ diversity in Serbia.

In the years leading to the October 7 attack on Israel, USAID did nothing to prevent at least $151 million in aid from going straight to Arab terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the years since the October 7 attack on Israel, USAID sent around $420 million to the Gazans and West Bankians without any assurance that it would be kept from terrorist organizations, including Hamas. And indeed, much of it went straight to those organizations.

Canceled $237 million in contracts for work in Afghanistan but still paid $61 million for work that was not performed and $74 million for work with questionable results.

Paid $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland.

Paid $30 million to study HIV in Africa among sex workers, especially so-called “transgender” sex workers. This money seems to have been used for chemically and surgically mutilating mentally ill Africans.

Directly and indirectly funneled $200 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which introduced COVID to the world.

Paid $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam, with only one battery station built. When I was in Vietnam in 2017, most people traveled using small scooters.

Paid for a “trans” care clinic in Vietnam.

Paid $25,000 for a “trans” opera in Colombia.

Paid $32,000 for “trans” comic books in Peru.

Paid $500,000 to expand atheism in Nepal.

Paid $6 million to promote tourism to Egypt.

Paid $20 million for an Iraqi version of Sesame Street.

Handed out $4.4 billion to Haiti in 2010, much of it under the aegis of the Clinton Foundation when Hillary was Secretary of State. Almost none of the Clinton Foundation money went to the Haitian people. Bill and Hillary Clinton are estimated to have a net worth of around $120 million.

Funded an Irish event that attacked Catholicism and promoted mass immigration to Ireland.

Paid over $300,000 to BBC’s media action fund.  The BBC is a British government entity that receives its funding from a mandatory tax on any UK residents who own televisions. Its annual revenue is £5.389 billion ($665,0295,450).

Paid $27 million for “reintegration gift bags” to illegal aliens being returned to Latin America.

Paid an estimated $300 million to Afghanistan during the Obama years, an unsupervised activity that funded the Taliban.

Funded hundreds of thousands of meals to Syrian al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters.

UPDATED spending info:

Millions have been sent to religious charities to fund resources for illegal immigrants.

Millions have been sent to the hard-left American Bar Association, which has been using its money to keep illegal immigrants in America

Congresspeople have a vested interest in keeping USAID functioning because they are getting hundreds of millions in taxpayer money for their pet projects without having to go through the budget process. 

And again, this is just the short list that I found after an hour’s research. To the extent that the entity is salvageable, it needs to be aligned with American goals, and it needs to police rigorously how its money is disbursed once it arrives in foreign lands that have powerful terrorist organizations on the ground.

One more thing: Leftists are insisting that because President Kennedy created USAID by executive order to help run the US government, it’s a permanent and legal part of government that cannot be undone. Not only are they wrong (see above), but these are the same people insisting that Trump lacks any authority to use an executive order to create the Department of Government Efficiency to help him carry out his constitutional duties to run the US government.

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