Much of the last week has been taken up by Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and their supporters, pointing out money that has been allocated by the government to places that they deem unworthy. Much of this is associated with the work of Musk’s DOGE, although some merely come from searches of the USASpending.gov database, which has existed for years and is not a new invention of DOGE or the Trump Administration.
Many of these stories have come from misunderstandings and people unable to read government charts. No, the U.S. did not allocate millions of dollars for condoms in Gaza, even though Trump and others have continued to say so more than a week after it was debunked. No, government agencies are not “subsidizing” Politico and other news outlets just because offices are subscribing to the Politico Pro product. There was a related conspiracy theory about the New York Times.
Much of this has been associated with USAID (United States Agency for International Development), the first government agency that DOGE targeted. And it turns out the president’s daughter and wife both received funds from that agency.
You know who used USAID money?
Ivanka Trump
…for her eventshttps://t.co/17Bi31YkyH pic.twitter.com/739WYFy55a
— Brett Bruen (@BrettBruen) February 5, 2025
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According to the relevant USA Spending page, the $11,539 expenditure is from November of 2019, for “Software and Other Prerecorded Compact Disc, Tape, and Record Reproducing,” as well as “VIDEO RECORDING AND REPRODUCING EQUIPMENT,” with the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washingto listed as a location.
“For decades, USAID bureaucrats believed they were accountable to no one—but that era is over,” the White House said on X this week. “President Trump is STOPPING the waste, fraud, and abuse.”
👀👀👀👀 $265 million from USAID to Ivanka’s cause. https://t.co/JiMWYmG061 pic.twitter.com/V4vB22quGS
— Sarasota Freedom (@dontdemdownsrq) February 7, 2025
Per The Daily Mail, USAID also provided some funding for Melania Trump’s “Be Best” program. The Mail also noted that while Trump made some cuts to USAID’s budget in his first term, ” it still found money to invest into his family’s government ventures.”
In May of 2019, per the White House archives, “the First Lady announced that a BE BEST Ambassador was appointed through the United States Agency for International Development, and will serve as the liaison between the First Lady’s office and the agency.”
“I traveled internationally to 9 countries – including my first solo trip to Africa where I partnered with USAID to visit the beautiful countries of Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt to speak with children about Be Best and also educate myself about the different cultures and challenges within each community,” Melania said in the White House release in 2019, which marked the anniversary of Be Best’s launch.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
