WASHINGTON, D.C. — New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim questioned the Trump administration’s decision to cancel a majority of U.S. foreign aid programs, demanding transparency on the reasoning behind the cuts.
The junior senator got his start in government with U.S. AID, according to his biography.
Kim responded to an announcement by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who stated that after a six-week review, 83% of USAID programs—totaling 5,200 contracts—had been canceled for failing to serve U.S. national interests.
“Show us the review. Show the American people how the programs went against our national interests,” Kim wrote on social media. “The American people deserve transparency.”
Rubio defended the decision, saying the cuts eliminated programs that “did not serve, and in some cases even harmed, the core national interests of the United States.” He added that the remaining 18% of programs will be more effectively administered by the State Department.
Kim, a former national security official, has been a vocal advocate for U.S. global engagement and has expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s approach to foreign aid.
Here are only a few examples of the WASTE and ABUSE:
- $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
- $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
- $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
- $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
- $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
- $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
- $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
- Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
- Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
- “Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
- Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
- Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban