USAID: A Criminal Organization?

The recent confrontation involving Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has sparked significant controversy and debate. In this article, we will unpack the issue for us to make sense of all the information coming out from various sources.

Steps Towards A More Efficient Government: Suspending Aid and Creating DOGE

On January 20, 2025, the day President Donald Trump was sworn in to office, he issued a series of executive orders (EO)¹ which are seemingly in fulfillment of his campaign promises.

One of these EOs was entitled, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid”² which imposed a 90-day pause in foreign aid pending an “assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy”. According to the EO, US “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests…They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries”.

Following a series of audits conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)³, the Trump administration has rescinded various initiatives established by previous administrations, including those related to climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.⁴ In a post, DOGE head Elon Musk said that they found that “payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.”⁵ The problem with the Treasury was just the tip of the iceberg, revealing that a large syndicate is operating in the US, many of whom benefited from the government’s lack of a strong audit structure.

Following the Treasury audits, DOGE arrived at the door of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). According to the mainstream media, senior officials at USAID were dismissed for refusing to turn over classified material to the DOGE team. What wasn’t said was that the USAID refused to follow the EO imposing the 90-day pause on aid. According to Musk, “All DOGE did was check to see which federal organizations were violating the POTUS executive orders the most. Turned out to be USAID, so that became our focus”.⁶

What DOGE found at the USAID shows just a piece of the strategy being used by the US Deep State to promote their own agenda worldwide.⁷ They supported regime change, put out coordinated campaigns to promote the transgender agenda and funded media organizations to control the truth. To be honest, everyone knew that the USAID was a tool used by the US for global domination.⁸ Anyone who believed otherwise is naïve. But DOGE’s revelations shows just how the USAID misused taxpayers money to the detriment of Americans.

USAID and COVID-19: A Direct Connection

A 2014 archived USAID report proudly states that the agency had funded research on novel-bat SARS-like coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to the report, the newly identified coronaviruses were highly efficient at binding to human ACE-2 receptor. Anyone who has experienced the COVID hysteria should now know what this means: USAID funded the gain-of-function research that led to the SARS-CoV-2 virus⁹, you know, the same virus that the CIA wanted you to believe was developed naturally.¹⁰

If only the COVID hysteria didn’t happen, then this would not have been a big deal, but the SARS-CoV-2 has enabled governments to shut down their borders, waste billions of funds for the purchase of personal protection equipments (PPEs) and vaccines, curtail our civil freedoms. It has caused the developmental delay among children due to the almost two years of online schooling they were forced to have because our leaders believed in the lie that children were carriers and transmitters of SARS-CoV-2. As you shall see in the next sections. To make matters worse, in 2023, Sen. Rand Paul pointedly asked USAID Administrator Samantha Power whether the agency funded research that were in the same vein as creating viruses that could become COVID-19. To this Power answered, “no”.¹¹ We now know she was lying. Why?

USAID’s Role In the DEI and Transgender Agenda

The DOGE audit has also shown that USAID has been instrumental in bringing the transgender agenda globally, spending millions each year. USAID previously spent $1.5 million for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in Serbia, $70,000 for a DEI-themed musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, and $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.¹² The agency also helped open TransCare Clininc in Vietnam, a move meant to “address ongoing gaps in transgender health care” in the country.¹³ All of these for other countries when citizens of the United States were suffering from accelerating inflation and mediocre public service.

Meanwhile, more than $50 million worth of condoms were sent to Gaza.¹⁴ For what purpose? Were these condoms really sent to Gaza, or were they just cover for a widescale money laundering scheme of funds coming from USAID? We might not be able to uncover the truth about this until DOGE’s team is able to see the paper trail. What we do know is that this is a massive amount of money that could have been used to finance the rebuilding of cities and providing the needs of Americans.

For 2025, USAID had earmarked another $8 million (in addition to the $30 million already awarded since 2018) to a South African research facility focusing on HIV research about transgenders. A $15 million was also budgeted for contraceptives in Afghanistan, even though contraceptives are already banned in Afghanistan.¹⁵

But the USAID was not just a funder of DEI and Transgender initiatives. It was also instrumental in advancing LGBTQI+ policies around the world (We wouldn’t be surprised if the Philippines’ SOGIE Bill¹⁶ was also a USAID brainchild).

Funding Regime Change, Controlling the Narrative: USAID and Media

USAID spent decades “building media networks, training journalists, and promoting ‘free speech’ in former Soviet States”, including Ukraine. This network is now known as Internews, and is referred to by the Washington Post as “one of the more successful agents of change in the former Soviet Union”. It established “independent” media in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia and beyond to create “a network of…independent stations, so they could exchange experience and share news without a Moscow bias”. Translation: Moscow-friendly news must decline for Soviet countries to start listening to the West’s side of the story. Sounds fair, right?

Unfortunately for us, Internews was not just about producing TV and radio shows. According to the organization’s own documents, they were “more interested in using broadcast media as a lever to effect social and political transformation”. An investigation conducted by X user KanekoaTheGreat showed that Internews was directly responsible for the creation of Western-aligned media in Europe which helped fuel the overthrow of Moscow-friendly governments in Europe¹⁷, and shaped narratives favoring NATO expansion.

Internews is partnered with well-known media outlets around the world, including CFI Media Development, Thomson Foundation, BBC Media Action, and Free Press, to name a few.¹⁸ In the Philippines, Internews is connected with Rappler, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), and Vera Files, among others.¹⁹ We all know these names. In general, they were the same organizations that promoted the lockdowns and the experimental COVID shots during the COVID hysteria. A quick look at their websites will also reveal that these are left-leaning organizations that have appointed themselves as the guardians of truth. BBC founded the Trusted New Initiative in 2021²⁰ in the hopes of “controlling fake news” and monopolizing “truth”.

Meanwhile, Internews brought to the Philippines the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Code of Principles to “mitigate the impact of disinformation”. The USAID Rooted in Trust (RiT) Program which aimed to counter the “rampant spread of misinformation about COVID-19 and its consequences”, and the Health Journalism Network (HJN) to “empower journalists to report on a range of health issues including emerging pathogen threats” has been actively training young journalists in the country. Internews also launched the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists to “bolster the capacity of journalists and media organizations to cover environment and natural resource management issues”. So if you have watched Philippine news recently, you probably noticed the proliferation of fear-mongering on pandemics and climate change, and the lack of critical analysis regarding these issues, then you know just how much hold Internews has on Philippine media.

But the issues do not stop there. At the World Economic Forum 2024, Internews CEO Jeanne Bourgault pressured advertisers to create exclusion lists to only adverstise in platforms of “good” news sources, a policy created by USAID to control the information.²¹ Apart from funding censorship and regime change, DOGE also found that USAID funneled nearly half a billion dollars through an abandoned office in California, the Internews’ registered address.²²

The it wasn’t just European or Philippine media benefitting from the USAID’s coffers. DOGE’s audit also shows that USAID subsidized what the Town Hall calls the “Democrat-media complex”²³ involving Politico, Associated Press, The New York Times, Reuters, even the UK’s BBC are all receiving funding from USAID.²⁴ The news outlets claim that the funds were in payment for subscriptions, but we all know that shouldn’t cost more than $1M, unless every single government employee had their own login. Meanwhile, the investigation conducted by the Townhall shows that another media outlet called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) was directly controlled by USAID. According to OCCRP’s head and founder Drew Sullivan, his organization “probably [has] been responsible for five or six countries changing over from one government to another government… and getting prime ministers indicted or thrown out” and is likely to have been instrumental to Trump’s 2019 impeachment.

Some media outlets want people to look at the DOGE audits as retaliatory attempt by the Trump administration. Whether that is true or not is beyond the scope of this article. The fact is that USAID is dirty. It is their dirt and arrogance that has caused their downfall.

Some Conclusions

It has been days since we started writing this article, and the USAID conundrum goes deeper and deeper. We must now force ourselves to end our research, or we risk not being able to publish this important work due to the depth of lies and manipulation at the “humanitarian” agency.²⁵

We must realize by now that USAID is a corrupt agency. To illustrate, Biden-era USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s net worth has skyrocketed from $6.7 million to $30 million, even when she earns just $180,000 a year at the agency. Either Power has a really lucrative business or she must be a part of the corrupt practices at USAID. Just days before the DOGE action, the agency’s own internal watchdog had already alerted it to its issues regarding transparency and misuse of funds.²⁶ Our research shows that funds paid for by the taxes of hardworking Americans are not being used the way it was intended.²⁷

To make matters worse, the projects USAID-funded projects have not achieved their targets and it cannot determine how the money it gives out is used. It remains unclear whether this is due to the lack of an effective monitoring and evaluation framework (unlikely, what with the billions of dollars and thousands of employees the USAID has) or because the funds earmarked for projects do not reach their intended recipients (as is the case in any corrupt organization).²⁸ USAID’s own structure may also be a culprit, as it is highly decentralized.

It has largely been independent, with the claim that it was the US’ soft power; it protected national security by “helping” countries that protected US interests.²⁹ In order to do that function, the USAID says that it must have independence from politics saying “Congress straitjackets the use of funds and creates an accounting nightmare when it comes to tracking and monitoring funding against results… Foreign assistance works best when Washington leadership allows initiative to come from the embassy team-level to respond to emerging problems in real time”.³⁰ In short, USAID has the freedom to dispense of its funding, which up to this point has failed to reflect true American values of freedom and dignity. In past years, American politicians have been silent on its impact in the world because they thought they were benefitting from this “soft power”, not realizing that the lies and manipulation were directly targeting them to benefit a few people who remain nameless and faceless.³¹

The issues raised by DOGE has been in existence for decades.³² What makes it different this time is that restructuring USAID will threaten the deeply-ingrained dark structure that has allowed corruption to fester.³³ The DOGE’s crackdown had the Democrats in hysteria because they are losing a valuable propaganda tool, and a profitable cash cow.³⁴ Now it is the Republican’s turn.

We cannot be so naïve to think that Trump’s and DOGE’s focus on the agency means that USAID will become a benevolent agency focused only on giving food to the hungry and medicine to the ill. For sure, it will continue to become a tool of global exploitation, though the question now is how it will be used moving forward, and for what purpose.³⁵³⁶

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1. Trump Reveals His Agenda With Flurry of Executive Orders In His First 10 Days Back In Office ↩︎
2.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/ ↩︎
3. On January 20, 2025 President Trump also signed the EO which renamed the existing US Digital Service created by President Barack Obama to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), see https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/establishing-and-implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency/.  Despite its name, DOGE is not a Cabinet-level department. It’s main task is to modernize Federal technology and software towards maximum government efficiency and productivity. DOGE aims to streamline bureaucratic processes, optimize resource allocation, and enhance transparency across public administration, reducing wasteful and fraudulent federal spending and, in effect, reducing US debt. The hope is that DOGE can become so effective that it will become obsolete by July 4, 2026. ↩︎
4. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ ↩︎
5. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1885582076247712229 ↩︎
6. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886627783138316442, https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1888025529149964602 ↩︎
7. While some of the agenda being promoted by USAID are “for the interest of America”, many are anti-freedom and anti-human. ↩︎
8. https://mronline.org/2024/11/01/weaponizing-aid/, https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-uspolitics-humanitarian-aid-human-rights-abuses/195779/, https://jacobin.com/2025/01/us-foreign-aid-imperialism-humanitarianism, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/from-cuba-to-brazil-how-usaid-became-a-political-interference-tool-in-various-countries/articleshow/117921098.cms, https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-ally-accuses-biden-admin-using-usaid-tool-interfere-domestic-issues ↩︎
9. https://web.archive.org/web/20240916061534/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PBAAF347.pdf ↩︎
10. New data shows that the US intelligence officials hid the evidence pointing to a COVID lab-leak: https://www.rt.com/news/610065-intelligence-covid-findings-biden/, https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/09/13/0426205/cia-bribed-its-own-covid-19-origin-team-to-reject-lab-leak-theory-anonymous-whistleblower-claims, https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/news/cia-accused-of-hiding-payments-to-bury-covid-lab-leak-report/. Even Dr. Robert Redfield, former CDC Director confirmed that USAID funded the creation of SARS-CoV-2, watch https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1886126884108554352. ↩︎
11. https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1886098345938284813 ↩︎
12. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/from-cuba-to-brazil-how-usaid-became-a-political-interference-tool-in-various-countries/articleshow/117921098.cms ↩︎
13. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14355251/shocking-ways-usaid-spent-money.html ↩︎
14. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14334647/donald-trump-condoms-gaza-trans-operas-colombia-foreign-spending.html ↩︎
15. https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-admin-quietly-spent-15-mil-to-distribute-contraceptives-and-condoms-in-afghanistan-and-said-doing-so-would-take-some-coordination-with-taliban/ ↩︎
16. Read More about the SOGIE Bill here: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/238593-timeline-sogie-equality-philippines/ ↩︎
17. https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1888746343797301320, https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1888306796273832168. This is corroborated by a 2006 archived article published by USAID confirming that the agency supported revolutions in Ukraine, Georgina, Lebanon, and Kyrgystan: https://web.archive.org/web/20060130080730/http://www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/fl_jan06/democracy.htm ↩︎
18. https://internews.org/supporting-independent-media-through-global-partnerships-a-post-event-statement-from-internews-and-its-ffpa-consortium-partners/ ↩︎
19. https://internews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/One-Internews-Philippines-long.pdf ↩︎
20. https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/ ↩︎
21. Also read https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/usaid-trump-agency-financed-censorship-smear-campaigns/, https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1888263633400164712 ↩︎
22. https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1888080368441704598 ↩︎
23. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/06/wait-usaid-was-involved-in-the-2019-impeachment-of-donald-trump-n2651759 ↩︎
24. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/politico-ny-times-propped-millions-dollars-us-government, https://apnews.com/article/usaid-funding-trump-musk-misinformation-c544a5fa1fe788da10ec714f462883d1 ↩︎
25. Please make sure to read this reference for more information on USAID’s function in regime change: https://www.globalresearch.ca/audit-usaidthen-shut-it-down/5879046 ↩︎
26. https://oig.usaid.gov/node/7399, https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/trump-purge-usaid-memo-warned-agency-its-vulnerabilities-doling-out ↩︎
27. David Sacks blasts USAID for misusing funds and supporting left-wing organizations and policies that are anti-American: https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1888021014585688435 ↩︎
28. https://x.com/DeepBlueCrypto/status/1886726202074845603 ↩︎
29. https://nypost.com/2025/02/04/opinion/usaid-was-rotten-but-trump-needs-the-soft-power-of-foreign-aid-done-right/, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-merging-usaid-into-state-would-undermine-u-s-strategic-interests/ ↩︎
30. https://afsa.org/usaid-critical-national-security-tool ↩︎
31. The Council: The People Running the US ↩︎
32. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/elon-musk-doge-task-force-federal-spending-rcna190963, https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/FESTIVUS-REPORT-2024.pdf ↩︎
33. See how the “establishment” has refused circumvented government audits for a long time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe47hTyUh5g, https://x.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1888593919656775761 ↩︎
34. https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1888287836215922814, https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/why-usaid-is-fighting-elon-musks-doge-and-what-the-left-doesnt-want-you-to-know ↩︎
35. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/trump-reorganization-of-usaid-will-not-change-its-promotion-of-exploitation/ ↩︎
36. Here are a few more USAID analysis articles you can read: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-trumps-dismantling-usaid-marks-seismic-historic-shift-americas-role-world, https://www.public.news/p/usaids-history-of-regime-change-destabilization, https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/05/defunding-usaid-isnt-about-reducing-the-deficit-its-about-shutting-down-left-wing-propaganda/, https://slaynews.com/news/usaid-funneled-tax-dollars-wef-bill-gates-george-soros, https://www.zerohedge.com/political/usaid-panic-mode-bill-gates-goes-msm-bashes-musks-doge-fear-mongers-about-next-pandemic ↩︎