If you’re someone who isn’t stuck in the world of D.C. politics, you’re probably not thinking about USAID and its purpose.
On the surface, USAID is supposed to be a mechanism for providing aid to foreign nations in need so the U.S. can further diplomatic ties.
It’s sold as foreign aid for people who need help with the bonus of keeping or improving our relationships with countries for future compliance.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
But is this entirely true? Has USAID been navigating outside of this purview?
Here is a quick media lesson for you: If there are great accusations made and the defense is not about the accusation but about the character of the person making it, it’s likely because the accusation is true. It’s called a “pivot.” You pivot towards an area that you want the public to see, rather than attempting to defend the damning area that hurts your narrative or argument.
Elon Musk, along with the Trump administration, is making a great claim that USAID is essentially a slush fund for politicians, the CIA, and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), domestic and abroad.
Musk is making the great claim that what we perceive in good faith as an organization meant to help “develop” underdeveloped nations with tax dollars is being used to further various agendas with little to no oversight.
I’m a consumer of all forms of media and listen to the arguments for and against a variety of topics. My pursuit is with the truth and possessing a deeper understanding of arguments for or against any topic.
With that stated, I’ve listened to the left-wing retort to Musk’s massive claims, and they actively avoid touching his accusations. They pivot.
It’s quite shocking to me that when it’s explained that USAID funds a variety of projects that have nothing to do with helping foreign nations in a humanitarian capacity, the response is rarely specific in their defense of USAID.
Musk isn’t just making accusations on a whim, he’s actually being very specific with his findings and accusations. It’s one thing to make a wild claim that is broad, it’s another to make a wild claim that is incredibly specific. Specific claims of corruption require specific retorts in their defense.
Essentially, the retort to Elon should be “Elon is lying because here is the evidence,” instead of “I don’t trust Elon because he’s a billionaire.”
This is the type of reply that is given, coming from the New York Times’ White House Chief Correspondent, Peter Baker:
“Total USAID annual spending to provide food, medicine, shelter and other services to impoverished countries around the world: $38 billion. Total increase in Elon Musk’s personal net worth since the November election: $ 156 billion.”
Mike Benz, a former State Department official, has been hammering home the point that the federal government has been misusing American tax dollars for regime change, viral experimentation, and laundering money for private agendas. Benz asked, “Why was USAID funding the Wuhan Lab?” along with a trail showing a lineage from USAID to Wuhan.
A critical thinker would ask themselves, why would a department that is supposed to be focused on development and foreign charity be funding viral research in Wuhan China?
In an interview with Mike Benz, in a matter of minutes, he breaks down exactly what USAID has been used for over the past couple of decades:
“Under the cloak of being a humanitarian aid organization designed to advance U.S. foreign policy is assigned the dirtiest tasks that the State Department can’t get caught doing and that used to be done directly by the CIA. But USAID is able to act as essentially a covert operations division in the way that the CIA used to, except it’s not even bound by the requirement of a presidential finding to authorize a covert operation that the CIA does.”
“The problem with [USAID] is far deeper than wokeness,” Benz laments.
“When they overthrew the government of Bangladesh four months ago … the only groups that they could muster to form an opposition group against the sitting government were gay and transgender groups, were two racial minority groups within Bangladesh, and youth and student groups who predominantly listened to rap music.
So what do they turn around and do? I.R.I. (International Republican Institution) in tandem with USAID, they funded Bangladesh rap groups, they funded transgender dance festivals, and they funded the local universities in order to push radicalization messages to overthrow the democratically elected government. But that was Republicans. That was the International Republican Institute, not the Democrats.”
The face of the opposition against Musk and Trump checking the accounting books is the Democratic party, but there is an ideological alliance between some in the Republican Party to protect the status quo of using tax dollars to fund ventures in darkness.
Many of the most vocal opponents of Trump, like Liz Chaney and Bill Kristol, have strong ties to USAID and benefited from the USAID funding.
The media will try to downplay the need to dissect USAID by claiming its budget is only a fraction of the federal budget, attempting to give the perception that auditing the department is not an important endeavor.
But if that’s the case, why are they defending it to the hilt? Why are they literally protesting outside of USAID? If it’s so insignificant, why are they immensely outraged?
It’s beyond being anti-Trump or anti-Musk. It’s that there is a mountain of corruption at play and USAID was one of their favorite apparatuses to use public money to fund whatever they wanted domestically and abroad.
They’re not attacking Musk’s claims for a reason. They’re not really saying his claims aren’t true. They’re instead attempting to doxx DOGE engineers who are uncovering the corruption and attacking Musk’s character.
They’re pivoting so hard that they have whiplash.
I don’t care who you vote for or what party you support. You should be highly concerned if Musk’s accusations are true. You should be outraged to find out your money was used to cause an uprising in a foreign nation or to fund narrative wars against political opponents domestically.
I mean, is that why you pay your taxes? Did you ever think your money was going to rebel groups thousands of miles away or a virus lab in China?
This is only the beginning. Trump is doing something that no president in my lifetime was willing to do: Check the books to see where exactly our money is going.
If USAID is this bad, can you imagine what these other departments with even more massive budgets are doing with our money?
Originally published at Speaking Wrong at the Right Time.
Adam B. Coleman is an author, contributor to The New York Post, Founder of Wrong Speak Publishing and writer for his Substack “Speaking Wrong At The Right Time”.
