PDB Situation Report | February 8th, 2025: Trump Takes A Wrecking Ball To USAID & Declassifies JFK Files
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What are the Trump administration's plans for USAID?
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, and your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll begin today's show with the Trump administration's efforts to reform the federal government. Well, good luck with that. And specifically, its targeting of USAID. That's the agency ostensibly responsible for administrating civilian foreign aid. Former Congressman Jim Renacci will join us to give his insight on that. Later in the program, President Trump issued an executive order last month to declassify records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, former Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Now, author Gerald Posner, he's spent a lot of time researching these assassinations.
He'll stop by to explain what we should and shouldn't expect to learn in the coming days. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. President Trump and Doge are taking a sledgehammer to the United States Agency for International Development, announcing massive layoffs and then folding that remnants of USAID into the State Department.
What are the arguments for and against USAID?
To some, USAID was a pillar of American soft power, providing aid, shaping global influence and furthering U.S. interests abroad. To others, well, it was a taxpayer-funded boondoggle. And when was the last time you heard the word boondoggle? Propping up far-left pet projects, including DEI initiatives worldwide. So what's the reality? Is USAID an essential tool for diplomacy? Or is it bureaucratic waste? Or is it something in between? Well, joining me now to break it down is former Ohio Congressman Jim Branesi. Congressman, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on the Situation Report. Well, let's start out with how would I refer to this? It could be a salacious question, but if you wouldn't mind, you've spent a lot of time looking at the issue of government spending of USAID and waste and fraud and government. What are the most egregious cases of wasteful spending that you've seen in your experience with USAID?
Anything that doesn't relate to a requirement to benefit the United States government and taxpayers, in my mind, is an egregious situation. Whether you're buying condoms for, you know, one country or, you know, all these things that we're hearing, they're all egregious. Because in the end, what we really want to have is we want to, that entity was formed in 1991.
What wasteful spending has been reported in USAID?
And the goal really was to make sure that other countries around the world realized that the United States was a friend. Because if we remember, back then we had a Cold War and we had Russia doing the exact same thing. So that was the purpose. Now the purpose of the organization still should be doing some of that. And remember, China today is the enemy that is doing a little bit of that around the world, too. So anything that relates to making sure that other countries realize that the United States is a, you know, as far as I'm concerned, is, you know, we're trying to build our relationship. That's a positive thing.
Yeah. I think just for the benefit of our situation report viewers, the reference to condoms is, we talked about this on the PDB. We highlighted it as a story, believe it or not. I think it was actually the first condom story we've done on the PDB. But there apparently was upwards of, depending on who you talk to, upwards of $100 million set aside for a health initiative that included tens of millions of dollars of condoms for the residents of Gaza. So I thought we'd just get that out on the table. So I take your point, and I agree 100%. Look, there's a real need for, however you want to refer to it, a tool of diplomacy, the use or the extension of soft power from America. And that was, you're absolutely right, that was a key element of this, the driver behind USAID at the outset. How did it change, right? At what point? Is it too much autonomy with USAID?
So is this a matter of not shutting it down but reimagining it perhaps as an element of a different organization?
It's one of the reasons I left Congress. I was so frustrated. Here I'm a successful businessman. You've got to look at your expenditures. We weren't doing it. Congress has no oversight on these agencies. Congress has not – doing a budget on an annual basis. Congress is not doing all of their spending reviews. All of this is a normal job of the United States Congress.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the Trump administration's plans for USAID?
0:12–1:20
2
What are the arguments for and against USAID?
1:20–2:48
3
What wasteful spending has been reported in USAID?
2:48–6:20
4
How has Congress failed in oversight of USAID?
6:20–9:51
5
What role should Congress play in USAID's funding?
9:51–12:57
6
What changes could improve government efficiency?
12:57–17:03
7
How does the Trump administration's approach to spending differ?
17:03
8
What are the implications of declassifying JFK files?
0:12–53:57
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The President's Daily Brief
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