USAID Programs Slashed & Anti-Israel Activist Detained | 3.11.25
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What are the implications of USAID program cuts?
USAID is gutted as the State Department slashes thousands of programs within the department. It doesn't mean that we're not going to be doing foreign aid. It's a matter of how are we going to be doing the aid.
What programs were cut and what happens to the few that remain?
I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 11th, and this is Morning Wire. A pro-Hamas agitator is detained by ICE as the U.S. opens phase two ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
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The State Department formalized sweeping cuts to USAID Monday, canceling programs that President Trump says did not serve American interests.
Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the specifics. So Cabot, a monumental shift in U.S. foreign aid. What kind of changes is Trump making?
So this all started back on inauguration day when President Trump signed an executive order freezing all funding for foreign aid and ordering a review of the tens of billions of dollars going out the door. According to Trump, the program was rife with fraud and poured the taxpayer funds into causes that he said did not serve the interests of the American people. So for the last seven weeks, the State Department and Doge have been reviewing all 6,200 programs within USAID. And on Monday, before he left for Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of them had been cut. Writing on X, Rubio said, quote, "...the 5,200 contracts that are now canceled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, and in some cases even harmed, the core national interests of the United States."
In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping, approximately 1,000, to now be administered more effectively under the State Department. Here's Rubio speaking last month about his efforts to reform USAID.
We would ask them questions. Who is this program fund? Who gets the money? We won't tell you. We don't need to tell you. We're apolitical. American foreign policy isn't apolitical. American foreign policy is to further the interest of the United States. If someone wants to spend apolitical dollars, they should spend private dollars, go start a charity, and you can fund anyone you want. But if you're going to spend taxpayer money, then you need to spend it in furtherance of the national interest of the United States.
Now, for context, last fiscal year, USAID dispersed about $40 billion to more than 100 countries. While it was initially created in 1961 to promote humanitarian interests, Republicans say that in recent decades, more and more funding has gone to overtly political or just downright wasteful programs.
What do we know about the programs that are being cut?
Well, the White House issued a memo with some of the more controversial examples. It included $1.5 million for DEI inclusion in Serbian workplaces, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru, $2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala. You get the idea. Hmm.
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