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

[Emrys]

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

...

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.

...

But in reality, USAID hasn’t been spending money on any of those examples. According to federal spending records, it’s the State Department — which President Donald Trump recently put in control of USAID — that is funding these line items.

As the White House claimed, there was a “live musical event to promote the U.S. and Irish shared values of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility,” according to spending records. The event did use $71,000 of U.S. taxpayer dollars, but it wasn’t funded through USAID. The Department of State bankrolled the event, routing the money through the U.S. embassy in Dublin.

The so-called “transgender comic book in Peru” also has a shred of truth to it. The Department of State, via the U.S. embassy in Lima, awarded a $32,000 grant in 2022 to produce “a tailored-made comic, featuring an LGBTQ+ hero to address social and mental health issues.” But, again, that wasn’t USAID money.

And the “transgender opera in Colombia” was, once again, State Department money. The project was related to a $25,000 public diplomacy grant to stage the opera “As One” in Bogotá. The rest of the funds Leavitt referred to from that project were not funded by the federal government, as NOTUS first reported on Wednesday.

https://www.notus.org/foreign-policy/white-house-keeps-insane-usaid-spending-not-usaid

[yellow dahlia]

1. I figured there was some fact checking to come on these stories.

[Emrys]

2. There certainly is!

The supposed millions to Politico should be included in that.

No, Politico Did Not Receive ‘Substantial Funds’ from USAID

Various government agencies have purchased subscriptions to its publications since 2016.

The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance as it looks to curb unnecessary federal spending across the government. At the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—the primary U.S. agency responsible for providing humanitarian assistance abroad—hundreds of staff have been placed on administrative leave as the White House considers shuttering the agency’s operations entirely. With USAID in the national headlines, a viral post is now claiming that Politico LLC, the company that publishes Politico and several other publications, received substantial funds from the agency. “Fun Fact: @Politico received USAID funds. Everything makes sense now,” Kyle Becker, a former Fox News producer, wrote on X.

The post, which had been viewed more than 2 million times as of midday Wednesday, includes a screenshot showing that Politico LLC received $8.1 million from the agency. In a follow-up post, Becker linked USAID funding freezes to a payroll issue at the company earlier this week. “The ‘technical error’ was reportedly resolved,” Becker wrote, referencing an email sent to Politico employees explaining that the issue had been caused by a system glitch. “The error of sending U.S. taxpayer money to a biased, partisan, establishment publication, however, is being fixed.”

The claim was picked up by right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, who called the news “the biggest scandal in news media history” in an X post with more than 3 million views. “No employee at Politico got paid yesterday. First time ever the company missed a pay period. This is a crisis,” Johnson wrote. “Now we learn Politico — a ‘news company’ — which spent the last 10 years trying to destroy the MAGA Movement was being massively funded by USAID.

Becker and Johnson’s claims are false. The only payments received by Politico LLC from USAID were for two subscriptions to E&E—an energy and environment publication it produces—totaling $44,000 over two years.

https://thedispatch.com/article/fact-check-politico-usaid-funding/

[MichMan]

3. Suscriptions are $11,000 annually?

The only payments received by Politico LLC from USAID were for two subscriptions to E&—an energy and environment publication it produces—totaling $44,000 over two years.

[uncle ray]

4. yes.

without further info, i'd assume that these are mass subscriptions for hundreds or thousands of subscribers, agency wide. an 11k line item in the budget is practically a rounding error. if every taxpayer got a refund for the money wasted on this supposed extravagance, the checks would be in the amount of zero. it's such a small amount, it's not worth the effort to even fact check why the cost is what it is. a few thousand of waste is a distraction from the trillions being wasted in tax cuts to the richest people in the world.

[MichMan]

5. Politico says they start in the upper four figure range

In September 2023, a staff assistant for the Center for Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure—part of USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation—purchased a subscription to E&E for $20,000. According to E&E, prices for its professional subscription packages typically start in the upper four-figure range and vary based on how many users have access to a subscription. Another subscription to E&E was purchased in September 2024 for $24,000 by the Center for Climate Positive Development—an office within USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.

They do indicate that they can vary depending on the number of users, but this doesn't sound like it is covering hundreds of thousands if they start at upper four figures.

[uncle ray]

6. "hundreds or thousands" is what i posted.

[newdeal2]

7. The point is to create simple lies that easily spread on social media

Their targets don't listen to fact checking or nuance.