Recently, President Trump and Elon Musk have been on a crusade against the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This all-out assault has caused many in Washington and beyond to bristle, but is it justified? What exactly has this agency been doing for the past six decades?

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What Is USAID?

The official USAID website is currently down, but usa.gov says the agency’s purpose is “to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.” Wikipedia further clarifies things by offering five bullet points. According to Wikipedia, the agency specializes in:

• Disaster relief
• Poverty relief
• Technical cooperation on global issues, including the environment
• U.S. bilateral interests
• Socioeconomic development

On paper, these sound like noble pursuits. And if the agency really was sticking to these issues, it may not have attracted the ire of President Trump and his administration. However, USAID has strayed from these written goals, pursuing all cultural rot and regime changes in foreign nations. With the eyes of every American firmly glued to this agency, many news sites and influencers have been covering just what exactly USAID has been funding with taxpayer dollars.

What Is USAID Funding?

While President Trump has put much of the USAID on ice, the agency was funding many programs and initiatives. At best, many of these initiatives were frivolous wastes of American tax dollars. At worst, they were actively harmful to the people of our nation. Daily Caller, for example, revealed that the agency was funding:

• LGBTQ causes in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Millions of condoms, birth control products, and IUDs around the world, especially in the third world.
• Peace in Palestine (much of the aid given to this cause ended up in the hands of the terrorists responsible for October 7).
• “Democracy, Gender and Rights Programs” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
• EcoHealth Alliance, which funneled money into the Wuhan Institute of Virology (Yes, the same Wuhan that was responsible for COVID-19).

The Daily Wire has also exposed some of the USAID’s more egregious expenses, such as:

• “ZunZuneo,” a Twitter alternative in Cuba that may or may not have been created to overthrow the nation’s government.
• The World Economic Forum.
• DEI in Serbian workplaces.
• A “DEI musical” in Ireland.
• A “transgender opera” in Colombia.
• A “transgender comic book” in Peru.

These last three items on that list may seem like jokes, but they are very real, announced by the White House press secretary herself. If these financial pursuits sound like outrageous wastes of money to you, it is because they are. Personally, I don’t think our government should be producing comic books at all. We shouldn’t be funding the creation of comics, we definitely shouldn’t be funding the creation of “transgender” comics, and we absolutely shouldn’t be funding the creation of transgender comics in a foreign nation thousands of miles away.

In a press conference yesterday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also revealed that the USAID has been funding media outlets such as Politico, a left-leaning (and that’s a generous way to describe it) news site that has routinely attacked conservatives, most notably President Trump. It is worth noting that Politico was the news site that first leaked the Dobbs decision back in early 2022, an action that led to months-long harassment against six Supreme Court justices. This very same organization was being funded by the USAID at that time.

Nevertheless, our unelected leaders in the USAID felt that these were all worthwhile efforts that necessitated the spending of our money. On top of its terrible track record on spending, the USAID was also anything but honest and transparent. The aforementioned Daily Wire article mentioned that the agency lied about ZunZuneo, pulling from money that had been earmarked for Pakistan to pay for the project. Additionally, the agency has a history of stonewalling lawmakers who seek to hold it accountable.

With all these facts in mind, its easy to see why the President has placed the USAID in the crosshairs.

Where Does This Leave Us?

USAID is only the most recent target of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and it’s safe to assume it won’t be the last. While the depths of government corruption and waste may shock us, we can take solace in the fact that this rot is finally being exposed.

For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light (Luke 8:17).

As intercessors, these revelations are exactly what we’ve prayed for. Let’s not give up now! Let’s continue to pray!

• Pray that the Trump administration would continue to expose our government’s misdeeds so that they may be corrected.
• Pray that our frivolous funding escapades would be brought under control.
• Pray that the money wasted by organizations like the USAID would instead be used to better the lives of Americans!

We prayed about the USAID and it’s wasteful/harmful spending on this week’s episode of Headline Prayer Live. You can watch this webcast below:

Add your own prayers in the comments below.

(Nathan Tabler is IFA’s Communications Coordinator. Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)