Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Friday that Democrats were attacking Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Co-Chairman Elon Musk to keep voters from noticing “spending porn” at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Trump administration announced plans for layoffs impacting over 95% of USAID’s workforce, the New York Times reported Thursday. Kennedy said that despite Democrats’ claims, President Donald Trump had the power to “review the spending” that he “delegated” to the Tesla CEO.
“I was paying especially close attention to what the president had to say about reviewing spending. I think it would be fair to say President Trump is dug in like a tick,” Kennedy told “The Story” host Martha MacCallum. “He’s going to continue. He ran on this issue and said ‘If I am elected president, I would review the spending.’ Now, I don’t know how you review the spending without reviewing the spending. No fair-minded person can doubt the president of the United States has the authority to review the spending in the executive Branch. He has delegated that authority to Elon Musk.”
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Trump named Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as co-chairs of DOGENov. 12 after winning the presidency. Ramaswamy departed from DOGE Jan. 20, and is reportedly planning to enter the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial race.
“A lot of my Democratic colleagues and most of the members of the tofu crowd are very upset. They’re screaming like Musk stole their dog or something,” Kennedy said. “But one thing they are not talking about is what Mr. Musk is finding. Just at the USAID, he found hundreds of millions, maybe billions of dollars’ worth of spending porn.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the decision to drastically reduce USAID’s workforce Monday during a press conference in El Salvador, saying that his concerns about its oversight began when he was in Congress and noting that the agency is “completely unresponsive” and “not functioning” as intended. Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa similarly voiced complaints during a Feb. 3 discussion with Musk and Ramaswamy on X that USAID officials threatened her after she sought information on humanitarian aid to Ukraine as part of Congressional oversight.
USAID has received sharp criticism from conservatives due to its repeated funding of left-wing social causes. The agency has also reportedly provided funds to EcoHealth Alliance, which helped fund gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It also provided funding for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an outlet whose reporting on former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City was cited by then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
USAID additionally spent $45 million on grants to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) scholarships in Burma and $21 million for renewable electricity in Lebanon, the Washington Times reported. The agency also provided millions of dollars to Palestine, some of which is feared to have fallen into the hands of the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which carried out a deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Trump’s executive order to freeze most foreign aid programs while the administration reevaluated and realigned spending was supported by 56% of respondents to a Reuters-Ipsos poll released Wednesday.
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