The White House Keeps Pointing Out ‘Insane’ USAID Spending That Isn’t USAID

Some of the White House’s most derided examples of wasteful spending from USAID aren’t connected to the agency at all.

Karoline Leavitt

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House. Evan Vucci/AP

As the White House seeks to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Trump administration has taken to touting certain examples of “waste and abuse” at USAID that have nothing to do with USAID.

In fact, at least three of the White House’s examples are not USAID: “$70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru,” as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week.

“I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap,” she said, calling those three examples “some of the insane priorities that organization [USAID] has been spending money on.”