Journalist Kyle Becker has reported that liberal news outlet Politico received payments made up of taxpayer dollars from the infamous U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The amount, according to USA Spending, was $8.1 million over a total of 236 transactions.
The data show that this cash came from payments made by various government agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, and many others.
Yesterday, Politico staff did not receive payments on the same day that the USAID office was shut down, adding fuel to the conspiratorial fire. Max Tani of Semafor noted, “Staff at Politico did not get paid for the latest pay period. The company just sent several emails to employees saying it believes there was a technical error, and is looking into how to fix the issue.”
In a subsequent post, Becker said the “technical error” was resolved, but “the error of sending U.S. taxpayer money to a biased, partisan, establishment publication, however, is being fixed.”
The Associated Press has revealed that President Donald Trump and his administration are planning to remove all of the workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from the field worldwide.
“The administration notified USAID workers in emails and a notice posted online, the latest in a sudden dismantling of the aid agency by returning political appointees from President Donald Trump’s first term and billionaire Elon Musk’s government-efficiency teams who call much of the spending on programs overseas wasteful,” the report said.
The AP then wrote in its report that the order would go into full effect just shy of midnight on Friday night and would give direct hires of the agency a total of 30 days to pack up their things and get ready for a return home unless they have been deemed essential. Contractors who fail to be considered essential will also be losing their jobs with USAID.
“The move had been rumored for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency into the State Department. Other options had included closures of smaller USAID missions and partial closures of larger ones,” the report stated.
The article also revealed that thousands of workers with the agency have already been cut loose, and many programs are now being shut down, thanks to an imposed freeze on foreign assistance put into place by the administration.
The Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, has made USAID a special target for investigation, believing it is a corrupt agency that is abusing taxpayer dollars. The overall purpose of DOGE is to help shrink the size of the government and bring wild spending under control.
“They have ordered a spending stop that has paralyzed U.S.-funded aid and development work around the world, gutted the senior leadership and workforce with furloughs and firings, and closed Washington headquarters to staffers Monday. Lawmakers said the agency’s computer servers were carted away,” the AP said.
In a recent post on X concerning the current DOGE project, Musk said he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
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