Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2025

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by Shane Harris

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The outrage over the Trump administration’s moves to rein in documented waste and fraud at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shows where Democrats’ true priorities lie – not with the American people, but with left-wing special interests and shadowy NGOs frivolously spending U.S. taxpayer dollars in faraway lands.

For four years, Joe Biden used the presidency to target his political opponents, import millions of unvetted illegal aliens, and shield his son from criminal prosecution, among other glaring and egregious abuses of power. Throughout all of this, Democrats and their corporate media allies oscillated between turning a blind eye to the corruption and actively enabling it.

But as soon as Donald Trump threatened to turn off the spigot of American dollars flowing to foreign countries, Democrats leapt into action, promising lawsuits and a tooth-and-nail fight to keep the agency open. A group of congressional Democrats even tried to force its way into USAID headquarters on Monday before being turned away by security. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy went so far as to call the situation a “constitutional crisis.”

The saga began over the weekend after the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began targeting USAID personnel and programs for cuts as part of its broader mission to reduce wasteful government spending.

On Monday, new Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was appointing himself active director of USAID, effectively solidifying that the State Department had taken over the formerly independent agency. “The Department of State and other pertinent entities will be consulting with Congress and the appropriate committees to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions of USAID,” Rubio wrote in a letter to Congress.

In principle, USAID is supposed to act as the humanitarian arm of the U.S. government, distributing aid to poor and underdeveloped regions of the world. The agency’s budget, about $44 billion in fiscal year 2024, is relatively small compared to behemoths like the State Department or the Defense Department.

But USAID has been plagued by accusations of mismanagement for years, and conservatives have long alleged that the agency has become little more than a slush fund for left-wing pet projects with no oversight from Congress. In the ensuing fight over Trump’s efforts to shutter the agency, those accusations have proven more or less correct.

There are undoubtedly some legitimate initiatives that USAID is involved in, a fact which Democrats cling to. But those worthwhile endeavors do little to mask the enormous pile of waste, fraud, and abuse at the agency.

For instance, one NGO under the Biden administration received $1.5 million from USAID to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities, by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia.”

In another case, a group in Ireland – hardly a nation in need of U.S. taxpayer money for “international development” – was awarded $70,000 to produce a “DEI musical.” Another $2 million grant from USAID went to promote “gender-affirming care” in Guatemala. $32,000 went toward funding a comic book promoting transgenderism in Peru. Another USAID program awarded $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia.

Other funding outlays were less overtly political but just as ridiculous. $6 million went to fund tourism in Egypt – a nation with a larger GDP than Finland and Portugal. Another $2.5 million was dispatched to Vietnam for electric vehicles.

To be sure, all of these line items are miniscule compared to the gargantuan size of the overall federal budget. But it is safe to assume that the vast majority of Americans – even liberals who might be ideologically sympathetic to left-wing causes – don’t want their tax dollars going to fund such programs in foreign countries.

It should also be telling for the American people watching this drama unfold in D.C. that this is the line in the sand Democrats have chosen to draw. Perhaps nothing thus far in Trump’s second term has drawn such a clear contrast between the priorities of the two parties.

Under Joe Biden, American communities were ravaged by fentanyl coming across the border, American apartment complexes were taken over by foreign gangs, American industry was pillaged by China, American prestige was insulted and disgraced around the world, and yet this is where Democrats have chosen to make their stand – on defending an obscure federal agency so that it can continue funding projects that waste American taxpayer dollars at best and undermine America’s global standing at worst.

What Democrats have failed to offer is any sort of coherent explanation as to how any of the USAID projects outlined here improve American communities in any way. In democratic nations, the government’s compact with the people is that their tax dollars will be put to work to advance the national interest.

How exactly a transgender comic book in Peru advances America’s national interest is anyone’s best guess. Democrats are irate that someone is even asking the question.

Shane Harris is the Editor-in-Chief of AMAC Newsline. He is a native of Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.