USAID Ordered to Shut Down After Audit Uncovers Funding for Revolutions, Media, and Regime Change

All overseas missions by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are ordered by President Trump to shut down by Friday. The call was made, in part, with a recommendation from Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The organization has been part of the federal government for 60 years and is said to provide foreign aid to more than 100 countries.

Musk and the DOGE team gained access to payment systems. They found the agency was spending money on gain-of-function research in Wuhan, vaccine distribution for Pfizer, sending money to media organizations like Politico, and several other questionable expenses.

Musk said, “As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it’s hopeless. USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you just gotta basically get rid of the whole thing.”

$53 million went to EcoHealth Alliance, formally debarred from receiving federal funding along with President Peter Daszak. $20 million went to a non-profit called Sesame Workshop to create a version of Sesame Street in Iraq. Millions of dollars were reportedly sent to Afghanistan farmers so they would grow more food instead of poppy seeds during the US war. The farmers doubled their poppy seed and opium production with taxpayer money, according to Senator Joni Ernst. The agency spent $2 million on Moroccan pottery classes and another $2 million to promote tourism in Lebanon.

USAID Director for Security John Vorhees and Deputy Director for Security Brian McGill were placed on leave Saturday night for not allowing Musk and the DOGE team to have access to classified material. Following that report, Musk said, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper.”

While the purpose of USAID is to provide aid to foreign nations, the agency appears to fund revolutions and media outlets in foreign countries. An archived web page from 2006 shows the agency helped foster revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, and Kyrgyzstan.

Former Senator Ron Paul said USAID should be audited and shut down. He said, “The US media reported that Ukrainian press outlets were scrambling to keep their doors open when the US dollars stopped flowing. It is reported that 90 percent of the media outlets are funded by the US government. This means that there is virtually no independent media in Ukraine, only fake news outlets willing to toe the US Administration’s propaganda line.”

Executive Director of FFO Freedom Mike Benz asked “Why did USAID pay $20 million to hit piece journalists to dig up dirt on Rudy Giuliani and use that dirt as the basis to impeach the sitting US President in 2019?”

The agency in question, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, accused Musk of “attacking the free press and humanitarian aid” for sharing Benz’s post. Journalist Michael Shellenberger shot back and said USAID funds this agency and admits to partaking in “regime change” in 5-6 different countries.

Investigative journalist David Hundeyin found that a $3.3 million payment had been made to an NGO called DAI Global LLC four days before President Trump’s inauguration. $48 million went to this organization from USAID since August 2020. The money is said to be invested in Nigeria, but the LLC is registered in Bethesda, Maryland.

Hundeyin wrote, “I looked into DAI Global’s activities in Nigeria and it turns out to be a run-of-the-mill ‘climate NGO’ which organizes meetings and seminars and stages photos with politicians and little else. Yet nearly all of its payments from USAID in Nigeria are labeled ‘All other professional, scientific and technical services.’”

Hundeyin adds that $799,000 was sent to Nigerian recipients and marked “undisclosed” or “miscellaneous.” He said $446,000 was sent to undisclosed recipients in the two days that followed President Trump’s order to halt all payments from USAID.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico. I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.“

The $8 million mentioned by Press Secretary Leavitt is the total amount spent on Politico subscriptions in 2024 across the federal government.

As some USAID spending started to come to light, independent journalists and social media users began to dig deeper. Politico has received $31.6 million from various government agencies from the beginning of 2021 to the end of 2024. The New York Times received $45.5 million during the same four-year period. The whole government spent $8.5 million on NY Times subscriptions in the 10 years from 2011 to the end of 2020.

Bill Gates chimed in to defend the agency amidst Elon Musk’s scrutiny and criticism. He said, “My foundation partners with USAID on nutrition and getting vaccines out, and, you know, there’s incredible people. You know, they’re not actually worms that work there.”