‘Biggest scandal in history’: Donald Trump claims ‘billions of dollars stolen’ by USAID

Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on a US agency he accuses of stealing “billions of dollars”, calling it “perhaps the biggest scandal in history”.

Donald Trump has accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other agencies of stealing “billions of dollars” to aid Democrats, calling it “perhaps the biggest scandal in history”.

The US President, who is facing growing protests after controversially gutting USAID funding as part of Elon Musk’s all-out assault on federal spending, took to social media on Thursday to attack the group previously branded a “criminal organisation” by the DOGE boss.

“LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A ‘PAYOFF’ FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS,” he posted on Truth Social.

“THE LEFT WING ‘RAG’, KNOWN AS ‘POLITICO’, SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive money??? Who else did??? THIS COULD BE THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY! THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!”

US President Donald Trump. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Mr Trump was referring to reports this week that the federal government was spending more than $US8 million on subscriptions to the premium Politico Pro service.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that she had been made aware of USAID funding media outlets including Politico, and that taxpayer dollars allocated to “essentially subsidising subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime will no longer be happening”.

“The DOGE team is working on cancelling those payments now,” Ms Leavitt said.

It was quickly pointed out, however, that the figure she was referencing was not exclusively USAID funds, but in fact all federal agencies combined spent $US8.2 million last year on Politico Pro.

“This is occurring because agencies (not just USAID) are buying subscriptions to Politico’s Pro editorial product, not because Politico is getting grants or other federal funding,“ Associated Press reporter Byron Tau wrote on X.

Journalist Isaac Taul from the Tangle newsletter called the claims “DOGE nonsense”.

“Politico has a super expensive pro subscription with very valuable info that loads of US agencies and employees want and pay for,” he wrote.

“As do other news orgs. This kind stuff is genuinely amateur hour. It’s evidence of a bunch of people (Musk, his crew, big name twitter accounts) looking at govt docs for the first time and not really understanding or thinking critically about what they are reading.”

Cuts to USAID have sparked widespread protests. Picture: Fred Greaves/AFP

In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Politico’s leaders, Goli Sheikholeslami and John Harris, denied ever being the beneficiary of “government programs or subsidies”, but acknowledged government agencies, just like corporations, subscribed to its pro service.

The Associated Press said in a statement to CNN that the US government had “long been an AP customer — through both Democratic and Republican administrations”.

“It licenses AP’s nonpartisan journalism, just like thousands of news outlets and customers around the world,” the AP said.

“It’s quite common for governments to have contracts with news organisations for their content.”

USAID, which spends around $US40 billion a year on various projects around the world, has emerged as a major flashpoint in Mr Musk’s war on government spending via his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Staffers were locked out of the agency’s Washington DC headquarters on Monday after Mr Musk’s DOGE dramatically seized control.

The previous day, two senior USAID officials were suspended for trying to prevent DOGE officials from accessing a restricted area.

The agency’s website went offline on Saturday, after Mr Musk wrote on X that it was “beyond repair”, adding the President agreed it should be shut down.

Mr Trump had earlier ordered a freeze on nearly all US foreign aid, sending shockwaves through the vast network of thousands of non-government organisations around the world.

The Trump administration is moving to gut USAID’s 10,000 staff. Picture: Drew Angerer/AFP

The President this week praised Mr Musk’s efforts, highlighting “all the fraud that he’s found in this USAID” which he said was staffed by “radical left lunatics”.

“They have things that nobody would’ve even believed,” he said.

“With money going to all sorts of groups that shouldn’t deserve to get any money, with the money … I’d like to see what the kickbacks are. How much money has been kicked back?”

Right-wing social media accounts and politicians have spent much of the week citing examples of alleged inappropriate spending by USAID.

Republican Congressman Brian Mast told CBS News that “DEI has been a priority over diplomacy” under the previous State Department.

“Let’s list them off — half a million dollars to expand atheism in Nepal, $50,000 to do a transgender opera in Colombia, $47,000 to do an LGBTQ trans comic book in Peru, $20,000 a pop to do drag shows in Ecuador … shall I continue with more examples?” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been appointed acting head of USAID, said in many cases the agency was “involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy with that country or with that region”.

“That cannot continue,” he told reporters in El Salvador.

“USAID is not an independent non-governmental entity, it is an entity that spends taxpayer dollars and it needs to spend it as the statute says, in alignment with the policy directives that they get from the Secretary of State and the National Security Council.”

Elon Musk has branded USAID a ‘criminal organisation’. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Mr Rubio said for two or three decades “people have tried to reform” USAID and “it refuses to co-operate”, branding it a “a completely unresponsive agency”.

“There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do,” he said.

“This is not about ending the programs that USAID does, per se.”

On Monday, Mr Rubio said in a letter to members of Congress that he had delegated authority over USAID to Pete Marocco, the State Department official who drafted Mr Trump’s directive freezing foreign aid.

Mr Rubio said he had authorised Mr Marocco “to begin the process of engaging in a review and potential reorganisation of USAID’s activities to maximise efficiency and align operations with the national interest”.

“The Department of State and other pertinent entities will be consulting with Congress and the appropriate committees to reorganise and absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions of USAID,” he wrote in the letter, CNN reported.

“USAID may move, reorganise, and integrate certain missions, bureaus, and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law.“

USAID was created by Congress in 1961 under President John F Kennedy.

The agency has now been crippled, with foreign-based staff ordered home and the organisation’s programs lambasted daily as wasteful by the White House and right-wing media.

Thousands of staff are being placed on leave from Friday night. Picture: Drew Angerer/AFP

“For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” a White House press release said on Monday citing a number of examples.

“Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.”

Multiple US media reports Thursday said there was a plan to slash the agency’s global staffing from around 10,000 to just under 300.

Two-thirds of USAID’s staff work overseas.

USAID said on Thursday that thousands of “direct-hire personnel”, except those on “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs”, would be placed on leave from Friday night.

The attack on USAID has sparked intense pushback from Democrats, who have branded attempts to shut down the agency and gut its funding as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.

Speaking at a protest by USAID workers, Senator Chris Van Hollen said “this Elon Musk attempted takeover … will not stand”.

Democratic Senator Andy Kim, who previously worked at USAID, said the agency was “a foreign policy tool with bipartisan origins that is critical in this dangerous global environment”.

“Gutting it means gutting our ability to compete and keep America safe,” he wrote on social media.

NGOs, meanwhile, have warned millions we be affected as a large proportion of their budget is cut off.

“It really will have a potentially life or death consequences for millions of people,” Daryl Grisgraber, humanitarian policy lead for Oxfam America, told AFP.

“At the end of [the 90-day funding freeze], it’s very likely there are going to be huge cuts on what aid can continue to move. So there is effectively a pause on all future funding as well.”

Mr Grisgraber branded it “basically a cynical power play”.

“This is going to put lives in danger and it’s unacceptable as a representation of United States values and interest in the world,” he said.

— with AFP