On paper, USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) is an aid agency — one of the largest in the world, which delivers some US$50 billion annually through missions located in over 100 developing nations.

In practice, USAID funds censorship initiatives, foreign coups, radical left-wing causes and preposterously wasteful ventures the world over.

It is on this pretext, at least, that USAID is in the process of being shuttered by the Trump administration. As reported by the Associated Press:

USAID staffers said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” The agency’s website vanished Saturday without explanation.

In the days since, Trump and his team have appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as Acting Director of USAID, placed virtually all personnel globally on administrative leave, and ordered all USAID missions overseas to shut down by Friday.

In justifying the agency’s mothballing, Rubio told reporters Tuesday that his frustrations with USAID go back to his time in Congress. “It’s a completely unresponsive agency,” he explained. “It’s supposed to respond to policy directives of the state department and it refuses to do so.” Rubio continued:

Every dollar we spend will be aligned with the national interest of the United States. USAID has a history of ignoring that and deciding that they’re a global charity. These are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars. We owe the American people assurances that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest.

The shutdown of USAID has been met with fierce resistance from staff and Democratic lawmakers alike. Another AP report revealed that two top security chiefs at the agency refused to cooperate with DOGE inspection teams sent in at President Trump’s behest. Dozens of employees staged a protest on Monday and have since been joined by members of Congress. Democrats and the media (though I repeat myself) have variously described this week’s events as a “hostile takeover”, an “illegal power grab”, and a “constitutional crisis”.

It is, of course, none of the above.

USAID was created by JFK in 1961, largely via executive order. As the duly elected head of the executive branch — and with a popular-vote mandate to boot — Trump and his appointees have jurisdiction over the agency and have acted lawfully this week, even if they have upset the apple cart. More importantly perhaps, by winding back USAID, Trump is delivering on his pre-election promise to rein in wasteful spending — and to use Elon Musk to do it.

So, what of the claims of wokeness, waste and wrongdoing?

USAID’s rabid support of abortion, DEI and LGBT politics are already well documented. By the by, this might help explain why 97 percent of all political contributions from USAID employees went to Democrat candidates. But it’s the scale of spending on wokery that is truly eye-watering.

In addition to spending $520 million on ESG consultants and $375 million in DEI grants, USAID has given $15 million for condoms to the Taliban, $3.3 million towards “being LGBTQ in the Caribbean”, $1.5 million to promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals in Serbia, $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala, and $425,622 to help Indonesian coffee companies become more climate and gender friendly.

🧵From funneling tax dollars to risky research in Wuhan to sending Ukrainians to Paris Fashion Week, USAID is one of the worst offenders of waste in Washington… all around the world. 🌎

This is why @POTUS, @DOGE, and @elonmusk are ending the nonsense. 👇

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) February 3, 2025