Marco Rubio: 83 Percent of USAID Program Funding Eliminated
Secretary of Defense Marco Rubio announced Monday that the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) funding will be slashed by 83 percent.
According to usa.gov, USAID “is the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.”
“The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio said on X.
“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department,” he added.
The Secretary of Defense did not list which programs were cut.
Rubio thanked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its staff for helping reform USAID.
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
In…
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2025
Elon Musk, the leader of DOGE, said on X that these cuts were “tough, but necessary.”
“Good working with you. The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State,” Musk said on X.
The Department of Government Defiencieny investigated USAID and how it wasted American taxpayer dollars.
According to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, “American taxpayers have paid $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia workplaces,” “$70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland,” “$47,000 for a trans opera in Colombia, and “$32,000 for a trans comic book in Peru.”
“I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap, and I know the American people don’t either,” she said last month. “That’s exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do. To get the fraud, waste, and abuse out of our federal government.”
As a result of DOGE’s work, Trump signed an executive order reviewing all funding America givers to non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
Photo “Marco Rubio” by Marco Rubio.