Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the nation’s foreign aid budget for USAID and the State Department during his first administration, including proposing in his first year in office to slash the budgets by 37%, which Congress rejected.
"With $20 trillion in debt, the government must learn to tighten its belt," Trump said back in 2017 while advocating for the cuts.
His rebuke of foreign aid stretches back even further to his 2016 presidential run, outlining in his famed candidacy speech next to the golden elevator at Trump Tower that the nation must "stop sending foreign aid to countries that hate us."
"It is necessary that we invest in our infrastructure, stop sending foreign aid to countries that hate us and use that money to rebuild our tunnels, roads, bridges and schools — and nobody can do that better than me," he said in his 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for president.
Fox News Digital looked back at the controversies USAID has faced in recent years, finding a bevy of allegations, including that the agency reportedly helped fund terrorist organizations and Chinese groups, and that its watchdog allegedly omitted negative findings from publicly published reports.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment regarding the following USAID allegations in light of DOGE’s targeting of the agency, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Sen. Tom Cotton warns taxpayer money diverted to Hamas
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a blistering letter to Biden-era USAID administrator Samantha Power in October 2024, sounding the alarm on the "likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023," Fox Digital reported at the time.
"As I predicted would happen from the outset, credible reporting indicates that Hamas terrorists have diverted this aid; indisputable evidence demonstrates that the aid was always at high risk of diversion," he continued, pointing to U.S. aid that was delivered to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which he said has apparent ties to Hamas.
Trump ended funding to UNRWA in 2018, when his first administration described the UN agency as an "irredeemably flawed operation."
Cotton pinned blame on the Biden-Harris administration for the "likely misuse," seething that "in all likelihood," the "administration has prolonged the Gaza war, allowed aid to flow to Israel’s enemies, and misused taxpayer funds."
"Your agency announced approximately $336 million in additional humanitarian funding for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. On the same day, the United Nations acknowledged that Fateh al-Sharif, a Hamas leader in Lebanon killed in an Israeli airstrike, was employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA, a major USAID partner before October 7, remains a chief conduit for UN humanitarian assistance in Gaza despite extensive evidence of its ties to Hamas," he continued.
USAID pushed back on the claims in comment to Fox Digital at the time, saying it does not fund UNRWA. President Joe Biden halted U.S. funding to UNWRA in March of 2024 for one year.
Syrian national charged with diverting millions in funding to terrorist organization
A Syrian national named Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, was charged in November 2024 for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front. The Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, is a designated terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, according to the State Department.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is facing a reckoning under the second Trump administration following years of allegations of mismanagement of funds.
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