February 3, 2025

"It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair."

Said Elon Musk, quoted in "USAID staffers told to stay out of DC headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to shut it down: ‘Just a ball of worms'" (NY Post).
Trump [said]... that USAID, which was founded in 1961 to provide humanitarian, developmental and security assistance, had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.”...  Musk and other critics have accused the agency of funneling money toward left-wing causes in the roughly 120 countries it assists....

78 comments:

rhhardin said...

USAID is in charge of street muscle demonstrating for larger-than-state issues, with the aim of bringing down the state.

Jersey Fled said...

USAID has got to go.

Start the criminal prosecutions tomorrow.

Rusty said...

More, please.

Dude1394 said...

Any organization that was giving money to bill krystol is corrupt. Get rid of it and poof, just like that it is gone. Javier Milieu style baby.

Original Mike said...

I really would like to know more about the charges that USAID was a CIA front meddling in the internal affairs of other countries. Perhaps the press could look into that (not holding my breath).

Dave Begley said...

Elon got right to the heart of the matter. I only see more success for DOGE.

Shouting Thomas said...

USAID was the conduit for funding the death squads in El Salvador in the 1980. It appears it was the conduit for funding the lawfare against Trump.

Charlie Currie said...

No more "Color" revolution for you.
No more gain of function for you.
No more money laundering for you.
No more human trafficking for you.
The world is healing.

RideSpaceMountain said...

In a conflict between patriots and the paper leviathan, the patriots must win.

The checkbook is closed.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Bill Kristol caught red handed!

In the immortal words of Kent "Flounder" Dorfman; This is great!

rehajm said...

One ball of worms down, 999 balls of worms to go…

rehajm said...

I’d be down for some clawbacks…

rehajm said...

Looking online…based on who doesn’t care for this I get the feeling you were ‘t supposed to find this out…

Quaestor said...

Do ya think Inga will show up to defend USAID and condemn Trump and Musk?

I think not. Inga and her ilk are too morally short to pick anything but the low hanging fruit.

Peachy said...

Yep.

TRUMP PROSECUTORS WERE FUNDED BY USAID

“This push to prosecute Trump by Alvin Bragg, Soros was a minor co-funder.

He gave them $10,000, that's it!

The $14 million he gave to the parent company, the fiscal sponsor of FJP (Fair and Just Prosecution, a nonprofit that supports and influences progressive prosecutors in the U.S.), well, that ain't shit compared to the $27 million that USAID gave them.

Every time you hear the word Soros prosecutor, no, they’re USAID prosecutors.”

Peachy said...

I'm still going with "Soros funded"

Quaestor said...

How long has this particular apple has be rotten to the core? 20 years? 30? A host of powerful people, Democrats and Republicans have much to answer for.

Shouting Thomas said...

As I said above, USAID was the conduit for U.S. funding of the death squads in El Salvador during the civil war of the 1980s.

Quayle said...

"This is the Office of Management and Budget. You can't come in here and starting asking a bunch of questions about how the budget is managed!"

Jimmy said...

Trump, with Musk, understands where to start destroying the old boy network. The State Department is one of the most anti american part of government, and going after USAID will stop the corruption and kick backs.
Two weeks in, and no, I'm not tired of all the winning yet.

Enigma said...

Some may say that the CIA = the State Department = USAID. Some may suspect the motives of anyone in these offices other than passport clerks in embassies who help stranded citizens get a flight home.

Some who work in these agencies may aggressivly press for plausible deniability.

Charlie Currie said...

It's ironic that the person who disliked and didn't trust the CIA created USAID, which became or always was a CIA front.

RCOCEAN II said...

Good work by Elon Musk and the President. Although I could've done without the disgusting image of a ball of worms. USAID seems to be another of those leftwing outfits that pretends to be helping humanity when in fact they're just pushing leftist power.

RCOCEAN II said...

usually its "there's not just a worm in the apple, the whole apple is rotten to the core"

Skeptical Voter said...

Sometimes you can remove corruption with a scalpel. Other times you need a meat axe.

Enigma said...

I think a nine-headed hydra is a better comparison, as worms wiggle around blindly as worms doing worm things. A hyrda is a predator -- when one head is cut off it comes back more aggressively (e.g., double the heads).

mikee said...

This is already old news. Mexico capitulated on border security and got a delay on tariffs to get started - four whole weeks!

Enigma said...

I'd not call them left-wing or even ideological at this point. Spies and double agents are all about the game and 'winning' a battle. They relish combat, manipulation, and destroying others for fun and profit. They may use UN/globalist, green, charity, or a random traditional religion as a cover story. It doesn't matter. Once you let these foxes into the henhouse, there won't be any hens left.

RCOCEAN II said...

Here's where the corruption and leftwing lunacy comes in:

"Financial assistance supplies cash to developing country organizations to supplement their budgets. USAID also provides financial assistance to local and international NGOs who in turn give technical assistance in developing countries. Although USAID formerly provided loans, all financial assistance is now provided in the form of non-reimbursable grants."

USAID has missions in over 100 countries. IOW, you think they're just giving Aid to poor people in Africa or wherever, but actually they're shoving money to NGOs in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America and doing God knows what.

Enigma said...

The JFK files are set to be released any day now... If a topic involves money and foreign governments the CIA will know. Santa knows if you've been naughty or nice, while the CIA knows every opportunity for exploitation (i.e., blackmail, bribery, pressure).

Enigma said...

Hunter? Hunter? Hunter? Every member of the Biden family who received a preemptive pardon? Tell the truth now, you can be charged for perjury.

Narayanan said...

founded in 1961 so taken over by those who killed Kennedy?

Jupiter said...

Really? I thought that was "secret" the way it's "secret" that the CIA overthrew the Allende regime. Go down to your local library and there will be a couple dozen books about it.

Jerry said...

No money, no rent-a-mobs. That might put a crimp in a lot of 'activism'.

What a pity. (snerk)

BUMBLE BEE said...

Pray for Trumps's Safety. JFK was smoked over Bay Of Pigs. DOGE is much bigger.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Trump's

BUMBLE BEE said...

Sometimes Ma Deuce!

RideSpaceMountain said...

Personally, I'm really disappointed Pakistani captagon-dealing transsexuals will no longer receive grant money to teach Aghan refugee boys the virtues of sex with older men but hey, we have to start somewhere. If that means captagon-dealing Pakistani transsexuals have to diversify their revenue streams, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Peachy said...

A ball of poisonous snakes

Former Illinois resident said...

Shutting down USAID is brilliant move, long overdue. Everyone should reread book "Confessions of Economic Hitman" by Joh Perkins.

Peachy said...

Looks like they pay Bill Kristol.
Wonder if they pay Cheney?

Readering said...

Musk is like Trump. He just says stuff. Pipeline of diplomatic confirmations will be cut while Senate Dems investigate.

RideSpaceMountain said...

So Readering, how much money have you received from USAID?

Yancey Ward said...

So, who has seen the inner workings of USAID- Readering or Elon Musk?

mindnumbrobot said...

We look forward to Democrats defense of USAID as more and more evidence of corruption and fraud comes to light.

Original Mike said...

"The JFK files are set to be released any day now... "

I've got to believe those files have been scrubbed, what was Schumer's phrase?, every which way from Sunday.

William said...

I'm in agreement with Trump on most of these issues and conflicts. However, for the most part, I didn't even know these were issues and conflicts until he took office. I just now heard of US AID, and I never once in my entire life pondered the possibility of acquiring Greenland.

Peachy said...

No amount of reality will shake the blind faith and resolve to always honor the democrat party.

Original Mike said...

Yikes

"Let me get this straight. Fauci’s NIAID and @USAID sent over $40M in U.S. taxpayer “support” to a scientist in Wuhan who was working on “bat coronavirus emergence” research, who also became “patient zero” for COVID-19?"

Whiskeybum said...

Who killed the Kennedys? After all, it was you and me.

Jersey Fled said...

Cookie assured me this would never happen.

mindnumbrobot said...

Funding started May 1, 2014. Fauci preemptive pardon is retroactive to Jan 1, 2014.

Wince said...

That “radical lunatic” stereotype pictured protesting outside of USAID office with a cardboard sign doesn’t help the Deep State charade.

Jaq said...

These are the people who were behind the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine, brought us to the brink of nuclear war, and who fund the propaganda covering that fact up that we see regurgitated here ad nauseam.

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jrytrpt said...

Does it matter that this action is completely and totally illegal?

Original Mike said...

It's always been puzzling to me the aggressiveness with which the government (and by extension , the press) has fought the lab-leak explanation. I mean, sure, NIH funding the research is a black eye, but it's what they do; fund medical research. A "we're sorry, our bad" would have been more appropriate. But what is this new revelation about? We deserve answers.

Howard said...

It's not like he didn't campaign on this

Jaq said...

"Does it matter that this action is completely and totally illegal?"

That's for the US Supreme Court to decide, now, isn't it?

Jaq said...

I think that this and gutting the State Department of the entrenched endless-war bureaucracy are the best thing that any president has done to counter the cancer that Eisenhower, and George Washington, BTW, warned us about.

Jaq said...

If the tariff war does nothing else, drawing the national attention and the ability of the media to fight back away from the substantive things that Trump is accomplishing. They can only howl so much. Maybe he really is a "stable genius."

Quayle said...

jrytrpt, make your case. Right now all we have is your conclusory statement.

Jersey Fled said...

Seems likely.

john mosby said...

Ball of worm-fusion. That’s what the Gov is today.

JSM

Bruce Hayden said...

What’s illegal? The use of USaid. Funds to inform non citizens how to enter this country illegally? To help illegals from being deported? To fly illegals around the country? Funding bat virus Gain of Function research in China, when it was ,banned in the US? Etc.

Curious George said...

My thoughts exactly. Musk too.

JaimeRoberto said...

Hey hey.

Yancey Ward said...

"It's always been puzzling to me the aggressiveness with which the government (and by extension , the press) has fought the lab-leak explanation."

It puzzled me initially at the outset and I assumed at the time that Fauci and the people who wrote that cover-your-ass origins paper were simply covering for their field's reputation. However, once Eco-Health and Baric's connections Wuhan Institute of Virology came to light, it no longer puzzled me- they were as guilty as the Chinese scientists who cooked it up and released it.

NKP said...

How can we hope for Good Government when the country is run by so-called NON Government Organizations?

Original Mike said...

Yancey - That explains Fauci's behavior, but not the 12-alarm fire from the rest of government and the press. Why didn't they just cut Fauci loose?

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

I worked several South American ag development projects under USAID back in the early '90s, primarily in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. In each case a large part of the project was the manufacture of "ordinary super-phosphate" fertiliser, which is produced by treating raw phosphate rock with sulphuric acid.

The projects brought in multiple railcars of each ingredient, having been a former fertiliser formulator, I quickly noticed that the amounts of sulphuric acid were 4x what was needed to make the fertiliser. Hmmm ... Then the American project managers had the raw phosphate rock spread on the land, even though it was alkaline soil, which does not break down raw phosphate rock. When I pointed it out to the head honcho he said "Hey kid, stay in your own lane and STFU. Got it?"

What crop do Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia have in common, besides coffee and potatoes ? Hint -- it's a crop needing a lot of sulphuric acid for post-harvest processing and concentration prior to shipping northward.

After the fifth such incident I stopped working with USAID projects.There was obviously an internal network involved and I was beginning to know too much.

effinayright said...

Jaq, Executive Branch IG's installed by Trump will have the authority to determine whether agencies spent their money as Congress directed. Ditto Congressional Oversight committees. Do you really think the Supremes decide every dispute within the other two branches?

effinayright said...

OK, he's corrupt----but you've got to admit: He looks MAH-velous!!

Kakistocracy said...

Someone needs to invent a new word, because 'unprecedented' is so overused now, as to become almost meaningless.

Kakistocracy said...

Cats are locked into how they react to laser pointers. Politicians are locked into a worldview that isn’t working. Trump and Musk love to toy with that. Effectively dealing with Trump and Musk requires removing their blinders and they can’t do it.

Dogma and Pony Show said...

Gutting USAID may be the most important thing Trump does. USAID seems to serve as a kind of shadow government-in-exile for the American left, such that, even when the WH is under GOP control, dems are never really out of power. They take tens of billions of taxpayer dollars and use it to fund all sorts of projects and initiatives to advance leftwing causes and narratives. It's not even all being directed overseas; USAID helped fund the movement to elect far-left, pro-criminal prosecutors in the U.S.

If Trump is successful in pulling the plug on USAID, the left and deep state will have lost one of its main sources of power and influence in the world. Maybe China will move to fill the vacuum; but that seems a little complicated, at least in regard to any Americans who are currently on the USAID dole. It's one thing to accept compensation from an official U.S. agency and another thing from an adversary like China.

Ampersand said...

For how long has this move against USAID been in the works? Somebody has sophisticated insider knowledge. Who?

Rocco said...

Skeptical Voter said...
Sometimes you can remove corruption with a scalpel. Other times you need a meat axe.

And sometimes you just got to nuke it from orbit just to be sure.