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🌊 “$8M For Making Mice Transgender”
We examine Trump’s claims about government waste
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By Max Frost
While addressing Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump spent several minutes announcing detailed examples of what he called wasteful spending.
“Just listen to some of the appalling waste,” he began.
“$45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI plus in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender.”
“This is real,” he continued. “$32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. It's a program, $20 million for a program. $1.9 billion to recently created Decarbonization of Homes Committee…A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring, $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali.”
“$59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City,” he added. “$250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia, $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning.”
Today’s deep-dive examines whether these programs were real, beginning with $45M for DEI scholarships in Burma.
Per a USAID pamphlet, “The Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a five-year initiative that will provide scholarships for over 1,000 students from Myanmar to pursue higher education opportunities in south and southeast Asia.”
“Awarded in August 2023, the program has a strong focus on inclusivity, particularly for Myanmar’s most under-represented, marginalized populations. Outreach and recruitment efforts target ethnic and religious minorities, women, LGBTQI+ persons, persons with disabilities, and displaced persons to increase access to quality higher education learning opportunities.”
The recipients aren’t disclosed on the government’s USA Spending database, however, at least a portion went to Inclusive Development Partners, a contractor that works to help disabled and otherwise marginalized children in developing countries.
In total, USAID awarded $45.3M to be spent between August 2023 and August 2028.
“$8 million for making mice transgender.”
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Editor’s Note
As always, curious to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter. Also, if you’d like us to dig deeper into the USAID web, please let us know what you’d like us to investigate specifically. Thanks for reading. And in case you missed anything, here are the past five stories:
Reader Replies
You all shared lots of thoughts on the Bridge Colby’s confirmation. Thanks to everyone who wrote in!
Stephanie wrote:
I have a Masters in Strategic Planning and worked in the Pentagon (Plans, Operations and Security) for 5 years. I agree with Bridge on almost every stance except Iran. Our intrusion into other countries' politics is viewed by most of the world as imperialistic expansionists. My personal view is that we need to take care of the people here in the US. Approximately, 70% of homeless are veterans. We have over 300,000 children that go hungry every day. We have countless numbers of American Indians that have no running water or electricity. We have more people incarcerated per capita than anywhere in the world. We have more homeless than anywhere in the world. We need to improve our infrastructure and provide wellness centers that focus on training people in jobs, coping and life skills; giving them a purpose and sense of belonging.
Daniel wrote:
One question prevailed in my mind constantly while reading this deep dive: why?
It is clear Colby operates under the premise that America's best interests are in opposing China's power grab in the Pacific, and essentially assumes that is the consensus. He explains the path to effectively fight China is to reduce America's influence and power elsewhere, but my question is: who said fighting China is of utmost priority in the first place? Why is protecting Taiwan from invasion and southeast asia from chinese commercial dominance that much more important than controlling the power of a terrorist State in the Middle East, or Europe from its imperialist neighbor? Seems to me like he just has an irrational obsession with China that can hardly be objectively defended...
Tom wrote:
Bottom line is China is THE threat to the USA. There are no other real threats. The CCP is playing out their 100 year plan for world domination. They have the patience and courage to see it through, and the economy to support it. Most of our assets must be focused on stopping and containing their aggression.
Israel is more than capable of defending itself with some help from us. Russia has more in common with us than with China, and we need to keep them from becoming China’s ally in world politics. But we can do both without spending as much capital, political and otherwise, in those areas. Our only true, serious enemy is the CCP, and they must get our full attention.
Colby gets it; so does Trump. Thanks for a great news service!
That’s all for today. See you tomorrow.
–Max and Max