Trump links foreign aid cuts to Obama-Biden era waste in USAID report
Trump shares a Just the News report chronicling billions in USAID funds lost, stolen or wasted as his administration sharply reduces foreign aid.
WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump pointed to a report cataloging billions of dollars in foreign aid waste from prior administrations as he defended his own sharp cuts to that spending. Trump shared the piece on Truth Social, tying his reductions to what he framed as past mismanagement of American generosity abroad.
Here is the full post on truthsocial: “While Trump sharply cuts foreign aid, past abuses from the Obama-Biden era keep piling up: https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/mon-while-trump-sharply-cuts-foreign-aid-past-abuses-obama” on August 23, 2026 at 10:49 PM ET.
This is Trump’s 8th message released today, and the last post was 1 hour ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 54 of his 579 posts over the last 30 days classified as Foreign Policy posts.
The report Trump mentioned describes a review of audits and investigations by the USAID and State Department inspectors general over the last year, according to justthenews. It says the review chronicles billions of dollars lost, stolen, defrauded or wasted through mismanagement or neglect, according to justthenews. The piece cites a half-billion-dollar fraud and bribery scheme involving a USAID contract officer and three conspirators that went undetected for a decade, according to justthenews. It also reports that American-bought equipment was stolen by a terror group and that millions of dollars in food spoiled in warehouses, according to justthenews.
President Donald J. Trump linked foreign aid cuts to past waste at Washington D.C.
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The review states that the USAID inspector general found the federal government kept funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees despite evidence that 101 of its employees or associates had ties to terror groups, according to justthenews. It reports that about $17 million of $21 million in food aid stored in Djibouti warehouses was not distributed to emergency food providers, according to justthenews. Some U.S. food aid in Ethiopia was sold for pennies on the dollar in online stores instead of reaching people in need, according to justthenews.
Trump, president of the United States since his inauguration on January 20, 2025, has sharply cut foreign aid administered by USAID and shifted what remains to the State Department, according to justthenews. The report Trump shared was written by John Solomon and published by Just the News, and Trump amplified it by mentioning the source (see justthenews).
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