Kevin Rudd moves to stem USAID funding ‘lies’

Australian ambassador to the US, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has categorically dismissed any claim that he or a think tank he formerly led had received funding from the US foreign aid agency.

Kevin Rudd speaking on the 2024 election of Donald Trump at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Australian ambassador to the US, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has categorically dismissed any claim that he or a think tank he formerly led had received funding from the US foreign aid agency, which is currently in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and tech mogul Elon Musk.

“We’ve been seeing posts claiming Kevin Rudd received money from the US Agency for International Development in 2022,” the statement read.

“It’s a fake. USAID doesn’t fund Kevin Rudd or Asia Society.

“Nor did Asia Society receive any USAID funding during Dr Rudd’s period as president.

“It’s a lie. Pure and simple.”

Dr Rudd’s X account replied to and refuted numerous posts on Saturday that suggested USAID money had gone to him.

The White House recently caused panic when it moved to cut the aid agency’s 10,000-strong workforce to just hundreds, but this measure was blocked by a court. The Wall Street Journal reported that most of the remaining staff were now on administrative leave and its Washington facilities were closed.

The White House said in a statement that USAID had for decades been “unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous – and in many cases, malicious – pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats”.

It pointed to projects being used to fund diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Siberia or Ireland.

Mr Musk – who leads Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency commission – last week said on his X social media platform that USAID was a “criminal organisation” and it needed to “die”.

Dr Rudd’s continued tenure as Australia’s ambassador has been questioned previously, including by US President Donald Trump while he was on the election trail.

“I don’t know much about him,” Mr Trump said in March 2024. “I heard he was a little bit nasty.

“I hear he’s not the brightest bulb. But I don’t know much about him.

“But if he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

Dr Rudd deleted all his social media posts critical of Mr Trump – one of which called him the “most destructive president in US history” – on the day he won the presidential election.

The former Labor prime minister said he did it “out of respect for the office of the president of the United States”.

Dr Rudd later had a brief meeting with Mr Trump at the Trump International Golf Course before his inauguration. It is understood he told the president-elect he and Foreign Minister Penny Wong looked forward to attending Mr Trump’s swearing-in and conveyed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s good wishes.

White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino late last year posted a GIF of an hourglass in response to a congratulatory message from Dr Rudd on Mr Trump’s election – widely seen as a message that Mr Rudd’s time was running out.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop last month cast doubt on how long the ambassador would retain the position when she said to “watch this space”.