President Donald Trump’s second administration has made the USA Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) a first-rate goal for spending cuts. Beneath Trump, the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is taking a severe take a look at the overseas assist company — and America’s allies and enemies alike are taking discover.
In an unique interview with Fox Information Digital on the United Nations, Hungarian Overseas Minister Peter Szijjártó didn’t disguise his disdain for USAID. Whereas insisting that he was not all for interfering with US home points, Szijjártó did discuss what he noticed from the company beneath former President Joe Biden.
“The previous administration couldn’t digest that we weren’t prepared to surrender our nationwide positions. We weren’t prepared to surrender representing our nationwide pursuits,” Szijjártó advised Fox Information Digital. “And we weren’t prepared to surrender our non-liberal, patriotic, conservative sort of strategy.”
Former President Joe Biden speaks within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM
Szijjártó additionally accused the Biden administration of utilizing USAID to “destabilize the scenario in different nations” and to fund “packages which have been completely alien and unusual in comparison with the tradition and the heritage of different nations.”
“When you ask me whether or not it’s good to us that there’s a revision interval of 90 days on the subject of funds relating to USAID and others, we’re very glad,” Szijjártó added.
USAID HAS ‘DEMONSTRATED PATTERN OF OBSTRUCTIONISM,’ CLAIMS TOP DOGE REPUBLICAN IN LETTER TO RUBIO
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump, additionally ripped USAID after it was reported that the company was funding Politico.
Prime Minister Orbán adopted up in one other tweet saying, “We needed to endure for years that the ultra-progressive, self-proclaimed human rights champions of the mainstream media demonized Patriotic political forces for years. They did it as a result of they have been paid to take action by USAID and the earlier, left-wing US administration. I agree with President [Trump]: that is too massive and too soiled to cover from.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed throughout Wednesday’s press briefing that “greater than $8 million taxpayer {dollars}” went to Politico, including that DOGE is “engaged on canceling these funds.” Nevertheless, the publication denied that it has ever been a “beneficiary of presidency packages.”
Musk, who’s heading up Trump’s cost-cutting efforts by DOGE, described the company as a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”
Elon Musk leads the Division of Authorities Effectivity. (Picture by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos)
MEET THE BIDEN-ERA USAID LEADER FACING BACKLASH AMID MUSK’S DOGE CRACKDOWN
On Monday, Trump’s White Home issued an inventory of examples of “waste and abuse” at USAID. This included $6M to fund tourism in Egypt, $1.5M in funding for DEI packages in Serbia’s workplaces, $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia and extra.
The White Home additionally accused the company of spending “tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” on “irrigation canals, farming tools, and even fertilizer used to assist the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin manufacturing in Afghanistan,” including that this was “benefiting the Taliban.”
Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth check flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Photos)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
On the finish of its listing, the White Home famous that the highlighted examples have been a part of an extended listing of initiatives.
“Beneath President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,” the White Home added.