On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that “after a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” terminating 5,200 foreign assistance contracts that had amounted to tens of billions of dollars. These funds, Rubio said, had been spent “in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.”
At the start of the review period, Americans were confronted with the shocking reality of where their foreign aid dollars were going. We are now acutely aware that, instead of funding essential humanitarian relief or other altruistic projects, our taxpayer dollars have been persistently funneled into ideological initiatives that have little to do with genuine aid for developing countries. We can’t unsee what we’ve seen—not only tremendous waste, but coercion too, to the tune of billions of dollars.
Incredibly, in many cases, U.S. foreign aid wasn’t even directed toward impoverished countries at all. Take for example the $3.2 million earmarked for the BBC, publicly funded by U.K. taxpayers—why were American citizens subsidizing the state broadcaster of a wealthy nation?
As the Trump administration overhauls foreign aid, revelations about U.S. priorities abroad should serve as an enormous wake-up call. For far too long, lawmakers have treated foreign aid as a blank check for bureaucrats to promote ideological agendas ranging from the absurd to the outright nefarious. The American people have every right to demand accountability, not only for the sake of their own interests, but also for the good of the nations that have been subjected to ideological coercion under the guise of U.S. assistance.​
There have been so many examples of ludicrously misallocated funds that one hardly knows where to begin. There was the $70,000 to fund a DEI musical in Ireland, despite the country already being among the most socially liberal in Europe. We found out about $32,000 for a transgender-themed comic book in Peru and $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia. These endeavors had no bearing on humanitarian assistance, yet they were prioritized over authentic development needs across the world.​
In President Donald Trump‘s address to a joint session of Congress, we learned about a $45 million grant for DEI scholarships in Burma and $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ activism in Lesotho, among other outrageous expenditures. USAID’s LGBTQI+ Inclusion Fund, comprising $25 million in 2024, funneled resources toward this agenda worldwide.
We spent U.S. taxpayer dollars strengthening a “trans-led” organization in Guatemala. The U.S. was backing three “transgender clinics” in India that supposedly serviced 5,000 individuals and are now forced to close with the dismantling of USAID. Similar clinics in South Africa have announced closures due to the halting of U.S. funding.
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In 2024, we allocated $395 million for global cyber and digital development initiatives with a primary goal of supporting LGBTQI+ access to digital technologies. We paid for efforts resulting in Bangladesh adding a third gender option in its 2021 national census, conducted an “Inclusive Development Analysis” on LGBTQI+ populations in Timor Leste, and funded the Dominican Republic‘s first national survey of LGBTQI+ individuals. We spent $16,500 for “united and equal queer-feminist discourse” in Albania. We deployed $8,000 to foster “LGBTQ+ cooperation” between Greek and Turkish Cypriots—an example of taxpayer dollars being directed toward farcical micro-level interventions with no evident benefit for anyone.
USAID allocated a whopping $3.3 million to an initiative called “Being LGBTQ in the Caribbean,” supporting activist groups in the traditionally minded region.​ Kosovo received funding for transgender recognition under the law, despite the country’s pressing need for actual development assistance in light of a struggling economy. USAID allocated $1.5 million to promote DEI initiatives in Serbia and designated another $1.5 million for gender and climate research in Pakistani universities.
And the list goes on: USAID was spending $600 million per year on its “sexual and reproductive health” agenda worldwide. Part of this budget was directed to major abortion groups like Marie Stopes International, which has projected a $14 million dollar loss without USAID backing.
Tragically, it is U.S. taxpayers who, to a significant extent, have been bankrolling controversial “reproductive health” initiatives, including abortion, abroad—for the most part in countries that protect unborn life. In 2023, the U.S. gave $194.4 million to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), despite its known advocacy for abortion in countries that protect unborn life. In fact, the U.S. was the UNFPA’s largest donor until the Trump administration defunded it.
American taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability in how their money is spent abroad. Further, the countries at the receiving end deserve to be spared the insidious effects of ideological colonization. This outrageously misguided spending reveals a deep rot within our foreign aid system. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to promote coercive agendas in other countries, nor should they serve as a slush fund for the ideological pet projects of bureaucrats.
Everyone stands to benefit from a foreign aid system that prioritizes accountability, national interest, and respect for the sovereignty of the nations it seeks to assist. Cutting off the madness is the first step. As the administration undertakes this necessary overhaul, it must ensure that going forward any generosity abroad is channeled toward real humanitarian efforts that both reflect American values and genuinely benefit recipient countries without coercive agendas.​
Elyssa Koren is an international human rights lawyer and director of legal communications for ADF International. Follow her on X: @Elyssa_Koren
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
