The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | February 8th, 2025: Trump Takes A Wrecking Ball To USAID & Declassifies JFK Files
08 Feb 2025
In this episode of PDB Situation Report: The Trump administration moves to reform the federal government, setting its sights on USAID; the agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. Former Congressman Jim Renacci joins us to break down what this means. President Trump issues an executive order to declassify records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Author Gerald Posner shares insights on what may, or may not, be revealed. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
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.
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.
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.
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