Washington DC [US], February 4 : White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt on Monday criticised the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and pointed out projects like USD 1.5 million for Diversity, equity and inclusion programmes (DEI) in Serbia, a transgender opera in Colombia, and a DEI musical in Ireland and called these projects "wasteful spending of American taxpayer dollars."
Her remarks came after US President Donald Trump appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting administrator of the USAID, confirming the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department.
Addressing the reporters, Levitt said, "If you look at the waste and abuse that has run through USAID over the past several years, these are some of the insane priorities that the organisation has been spending money on USD 1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces, USD 70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland, USD 47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, USD 32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru."
She added, "I don't know about you but as an American taxpayer, I don't want my dollars going towards this crap and I know the American people don't want to either. And that's exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do. To get the fraud waste and abuse out of our federal government."
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1886515818264973705
Notably, American tech billionaire Elon Musk has called the USAID a "criminal organization" and said that it is "time for it to die."
In a post on X, Musk wrote, "USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die."
Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, US representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district, on the USAID said that the country is witnessing a "constitutional crisis," warning that President Trump's moves are the beginnings of "dictatorship."
"It is really, really a sad day in America. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one, and here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like," Omar said.
In a tweet, she wrote, "Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, is wasting no time in abusing the influence he bought with $290 million by eliminating USAID, a programme that has saved millions of lives around the world. Real people who depend on this critical aid to access food, shelter, and medical care, for survival will die because of this decision."
https://x.com/Ilhan/status/1886544237510250586
Last week, around 60 senior USAID staff were put on leave after accusations of trying to circumvent the executive order on foreign aid, CNN reported. Another senior official was put on leave for attempting to reverse that move after finding no evidence of wrongdoing.
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