In the midst of swirling controversy over a potential U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shutdown, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt exposed some of the agency’s “insane priorities,” ranging from $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia, $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia, and $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru. It’s clearly time for a reckoning.
Putting an end to this kind of egregious waste of American taxpayer funds would not only benefit America, it also would be a tremendous boon for the recipient countries that have long suffered ideological coercion under the guise of U.S. foreign assistance.
As convincingly put by the president of El Salvador, “Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up … At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need … Cutting this so-called aid isn’t just beneficial for the United States; it’s also a big win for the rest of the world.”
News of high-stakes financial mismanagement from USAID fits a horrifying pattern of foreign aid abuse. Having worked inside the United Nations for a decade, I saw firsthand how vast quantities of what’s labeled “foreign aid” backs programs that are pointless at best and extremely harmful at their worst.
Take, for example, abortion. The U.S. in 2023 became the largest donor to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with $130 million for its abortion-centric work in developing countries. This is the same agency that openly pushed abortion legalization as a condition for COVID relief. Recipients included Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, and Ethiopia, alongside a host of others with laws that protect unborn life. High levels of conflict and poverty render these governments particularly vulnerable to the strings that come attached to foreign aid.
In 2020, Ecuador was singled out for an $8 million U.N. COVID assistance package with the requirement that Ecuador implement “safe legal abortion.” At the time, USAID issued a strongly worded letter insisting that the U.N. cease using the pandemic as an excuse for abortion coercion.
The letter cites USAID’s 2019 funding to the tune of $3.5 billion to the U.N., including $45.3 million specifically for pandemic relief. The point is, even though the first Trump administration rejected the funding of abortion internationally as a general legal principle, USAID was still sending billions to the U.N., which was going right back around to fund abortion around the world.
Now, as the Trump administration overhauls its foreign aid architecture, it should recall the lessons learned from the U.N. COVID abortion fiasco. Shutting down our own foreign aid offenders is only part of the puzzle. The administration will want to ensure enormous sums of taxpayer dollars aren’t supporting the promotion of nefarious agendas at the hands of the U.N. and other international institutions too.
Fortunately, the Trump administration has brought back the expanded Mexico City Policy, preventing federal funds from going to abortion- promoting NGOs abroad. This is squarely in line with a 2022 poll, which found that 73% of Americans oppose using tax dollars to support abortion abroad. Surely, most Americans reject the idea of their money funding “transgender operas” too.
While it may be compelling for the Trump administration to lead with an “America first” approach to foreign aid overhaul, keep in mind that foreign aid accountability is not just in the best interest of America. It’s also in the best interest of recipient countries. Instead of pushing DEI, “transgender operas,” or abortion, any U.S. aid should support the dignity of people in need in their own cultural and legal context, rather than treating them as pawns in ideological battles.
As the Trump administration undertakes a foreign aid overhaul, the guiding principle should be strict accountability. Every dollar spent should be traceable. Americans deserve to know what their money is going toward and to have assurance that taxpayer money is not used to promote coercive agendas.
The problem with USAID wasn’t that it used foreign aid to advance American interests. Every Western country does that. The problem is the extent to which so much of this aid was used to promote disturbing ideological agendas. The great irony here lies in the blind pride of wokeism. USAID failed to see how billions for ideologically driven initiatives does nothing to boost U.S. influence—it just makes America a laughingstock. If the agency’s job was to boost American influence, it should have gone another route than DEI and transgender promotion.
* * *
Elyssa Koren is an international human rights lawyer and director of legal communications for ADF International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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[[{“value”:”
In the midst of swirling controversy over a potential U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shutdown, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt exposed some of the agency’s “insane priorities,” ranging from $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia, $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia, and $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru. It’s clearly time for a reckoning.
Putting an end to this kind of egregious waste of American taxpayer funds would not only benefit America, it also would be a tremendous boon for the recipient countries that have long suffered ideological coercion under the guise of U.S. foreign assistance.
As convincingly put by the president of El Salvador, “Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up … At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need … Cutting this so-called aid isn’t just beneficial for the United States; it’s also a big win for the rest of the world.”
News of high-stakes financial mismanagement from USAID fits a horrifying pattern of foreign aid abuse. Having worked inside the United Nations for a decade, I saw firsthand how vast quantities of what’s labeled “foreign aid” backs programs that are pointless at best and extremely harmful at their worst.
Take, for example, abortion. The U.S. in 2023 became the largest donor to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with $130 million for its abortion-centric work in developing countries. This is the same agency that openly pushed abortion legalization as a condition for COVID relief. Recipients included Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, and Ethiopia, alongside a host of others with laws that protect unborn life. High levels of conflict and poverty render these governments particularly vulnerable to the strings that come attached to foreign aid.
In 2020, Ecuador was singled out for an $8 million U.N. COVID assistance package with the requirement that Ecuador implement “safe legal abortion.” At the time, USAID issued a strongly worded letter insisting that the U.N. cease using the pandemic as an excuse for abortion coercion.
The letter cites USAID’s 2019 funding to the tune of $3.5 billion to the U.N., including $45.3 million specifically for pandemic relief. The point is, even though the first Trump administration rejected the funding of abortion internationally as a general legal principle, USAID was still sending billions to the U.N., which was going right back around to fund abortion around the world.
Now, as the Trump administration overhauls its foreign aid architecture, it should recall the lessons learned from the U.N. COVID abortion fiasco. Shutting down our own foreign aid offenders is only part of the puzzle. The administration will want to ensure enormous sums of taxpayer dollars aren’t supporting the promotion of nefarious agendas at the hands of the U.N. and other international institutions too.
Fortunately, the Trump administration has brought back the expanded Mexico City Policy, preventing federal funds from going to abortion- promoting NGOs abroad. This is squarely in line with a 2022 poll, which found that 73% of Americans oppose using tax dollars to support abortion abroad. Surely, most Americans reject the idea of their money funding “transgender operas” too.
While it may be compelling for the Trump administration to lead with an “America first” approach to foreign aid overhaul, keep in mind that foreign aid accountability is not just in the best interest of America. It’s also in the best interest of recipient countries. Instead of pushing DEI, “transgender operas,” or abortion, any U.S. aid should support the dignity of people in need in their own cultural and legal context, rather than treating them as pawns in ideological battles.
As the Trump administration undertakes a foreign aid overhaul, the guiding principle should be strict accountability. Every dollar spent should be traceable. Americans deserve to know what their money is going toward and to have assurance that taxpayer money is not used to promote coercive agendas.
The problem with USAID wasn’t that it used foreign aid to advance American interests. Every Western country does that. The problem is the extent to which so much of this aid was used to promote disturbing ideological agendas. The great irony here lies in the blind pride of wokeism. USAID failed to see how billions for ideologically driven initiatives does nothing to boost U.S. influence—it just makes America a laughingstock. If the agency’s job was to boost American influence, it should have gone another route than DEI and transgender promotion.
* * *
Elyssa Koren is an international human rights lawyer and director of legal communications for ADF International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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