Immediately after taking office, Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead DOGE.
One of the first actions of Musk was to point out alleged fraud and waste taking place at USAID.
Dems have fought tooth and nail to keep USAID intact, but the Trump administration just made a huge move to obliterate the agency.
Musk set the country on fire when he called USAID “criminal,” then exposed the money funnels to liberal causes that had been created in the agency.
Then a letter was sent out to staffers, which stated, "Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remote tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership. Further guidance will be forthcoming."
When the media and Democrats started to say that Musk was running the show, Trump pushed back, "Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval. And we'll give him the approval where appropriate."
Trump also sent the left into a furor when asked if he needed congressional approval to shut down the agency, if it came to that. He responded, "I don't think so. If not, when it comes to fraud, if there's fraud, these people are lunatics. And if -- if it comes to fraud, you wouldn't have an act of Congress. And I'm not sure that you would anyway. But we just wanted to do the right thing.”
Democrats, once again, sounded like Chicken Little at the thought of losing USAID.
Now, I don’t want to belittle the many programs that truly work at USAID. But after having seen the overall spending, it is very clear that Dems were using this more to push their agenda than to meet the agency’s mission.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) was among those screaming from his soapbox, stating, "This is a brazen attempt by a billionaire who nobody voted for, to illegally and unconstitutionally steal from taxpayers so he can give himself a tax break.”
That was hardly what Musk was doing here, as the list of liberal causes supported by USAID was published and clear as day. Again, I have no problem with helping to make the world a better place, but when you are using American taxpayer dollars to push a partisan agenda, well, that I do have a problem with.
Finally, something real is being done to open the books at USAID, with the Small Business Administration (SBA) having ordered a full audit “of all government contracting officers who have exercised grant-awarding authority under the agency’s business development program over the last 15 years,” reported Fox News.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler stated, "The role of federal government contracting officers is not ceremonial or self-dealing; rather, it is a position of immense authority and fiduciary responsibility. The contracting process must be transparent and built on merit, not personal gain."
Now, this is something we can sink our teeth into, as this audit will ideally not only expose the suspected money funnels, but it will also expose the people who put them in place and trace the funds back to the beneficiaries.
I have high hopes for this investigation, as I would love for the American people to see the root of the more than $37 trillion in debt our country now faces, and who was benefiting from the reckless spending.
