‘Viper’s nest’: USAID accused of corruption, mismanagement long before Trump admin took aim

The U.S. Agency for International Development’s fate is hanging in the balance as the second Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is working on an apparent overhaul of the agency. 

A review of USAID’s recent history shows that it repeatedly has been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Donald Trump’s second administration, Fox News Digital found. 

Tech billionaire and DOGE Chair Elon Musk has been on a warpath against USAID — which is an independent U.S. agency that was established under the Kennedy administration to administer economic aid to foreign nations — as he leads DOGE’s mission of cutting government fat and overspending at the federal level. 

Musk announced in an audio-only message on X overnight on Sunday that ‘we’re in the process’ of ‘shutting down USAID’ and that Trump reportedly agreed to shutter the agency.

‘With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,’ he said. ‘I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’’ 

He added that Trump responded, ‘Yes.’ 

As of Monday morning, hundreds of USAID employees reported they were locked out of the agency’s computer system and that its headquarters in Washington, D.C., was closed on Monday. 

On X, Musk has railed against the organization as rife with ‘marxists’ and is operating as a ‘criminal organization.’ 

‘USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,’ Musk posted to X on Sunday. 

‘USAID was a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America,’ he said in another message. 

Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the nation’s foreign aid budget for USAID and the State Department during his first administration, including proposing in his first year in office to slash the budgets by 37%, which Congress rejected. 

‘With $20 trillion in debt, the government must learn to tighten its belt,’ Trump said back in 2017 while advocating for the cuts.

His rebuke of foreign aid stretches back even further to his 2016 presidential run, outlining in his famed candidacy speech next to the golden elevator at Trump Tower that the nation must ‘stop sending foreign aid to countries that hate us.’

‘It is necessary that we invest in our infrastructure, stop sending foreign aid to countries that hate us and use that money to rebuild our tunnels, roads, bridges and schools — and nobody can do that better than me,’ he said in his 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for president. 

Fox News Digital looked back at the controversies USAID has faced in recent years, finding a bevy of allegations, including that the agency reportedly helped fund terrorist organizations and Chinese groups, and that its watchdog allegedly omitted negative findings from publicly published reports. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment regarding the following USAID allegations in light of DOGE’s targeting of the agency, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Sen. Tom Cotton warns taxpayer money diverted to Hamas 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a blistering letter to Biden-era USAID administrator Samantha Power in October 2024, sounding the alarm on the ‘likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023,’ Fox Digital reported at the time. 

‘As I predicted would happen from the outset, credible reporting indicates that Hamas terrorists have diverted this aid; indisputable evidence demonstrates that the aid was always at high risk of diversion,’ he continued, pointing to U.S. aid that was delivered to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), whichhe said has apparent ties to Hamas. 

Trump ended funding to UNRWA in 2018, when his first administration described the UN agency as an ‘irredeemably flawed operation.’

Cotton pinned blame on the Biden-Harris administration for the ‘likely misuse,’ seething that ‘in all likelihood,’ the ‘administration has prolonged the Gaza war, allowed aid to flow to Israel’s enemies, and misused taxpayer funds.’

‘Your agency announced approximately $336 million in additional humanitarian funding for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. On the same day, the United Nations acknowledged that Fateh al-Sharif, a Hamas leader in Lebanon killed in an Israeli airstrike, was employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA, a major USAID partner before October 7, remains a chief conduit for UN humanitarian assistance in Gaza despite extensive evidence of its ties to Hamas,’ he continued. 

USAID pushed back on the claims in comment to Fox Digital at the time, saying it does not fund UNRWA. President Joe Biden halted U.S. funding to UNWRA in March of 2024 for one year. 

‘USAID does not provide any funding to UNRWA, nor did we do so prior to October 7, 2023,’ the spokesperson said in October 2024. ‘In addition to extensive risk mitigation procedures, USAID works closely with the Government of Israel to assist with the coordination of and discuss potential risks to all humanitarian assistance entering Gaza. USAID has not received evidence from the Government of Israel, our partners, or other sources to support the claims in Senator Cotton’s letter.’ 

Cotton’s office responded to the statement: ‘Administrator Power and USAID do not have an adequate vetting process to ensure that American taxpayer dollars do not end up with terrorists. If a terrorist front organization like UNRWA is the only ‘distribution system’ in Gaza, Power should reconsider sending aid there in the first place. Our tax dollars should not fund a group that has assisted in the kidnapping and murder of Americans.’ 

Syrian national charged with diverting millions in funding to terrorist organization 

A Syrian national named Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, was charged in November 2024 for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front. The Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, is a designated terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, according to the State Department.

USAID’s office of the inspector general outlined in its press release on Al Hafyan’s 12-count indictment that the U.S. had awarded $122 million to the Syrian national’s NGO between 2015 and 2019. The funds were intended for food kits to bolster citizens amid Syria’s bloody civil war. He is accused, however, of directing the food kits to the Al-Nusrah Front, as well as selling them on the black market, according to the press release. 

‘This defendant not only defrauded the U.S. government, but he also gave the humanitarian aid he stole to a foreign terrorist organization,’ said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said at the time. ‘While this foreign terrorist organization fought with the cruel al-Assad regime, the people who were supposed to receive the aid suffered.  This office has a history of pursuing criminals around the globe, no matter how many years it takes, and will do all it can to ensure that Mahmoud Al Hafyan is held accountable for these crimes.’

Former USAID administrator repeatedly meets with Soros foundation 

Samantha Power — the Biden administration’s USAID administrator and former U.S. ambassador to the UN under former President Barack Obama’s tenure — was discovered to have repeatedly met with left-wing groups such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations while serving as the foreign aid agency’s administrator, Fox Digital reported in 2023. 

Power met with George Soros’ Open Society Foundations at least two times and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at least five times, Fox Digital reported. She also held meetings with other powerful groups, such as the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, according to 700 pages of internal calendar entries that stretched back to 2021 and were obtained by Fox News Digital in 2023. 

USAID brushed off Power’s string of meetings with powerful left-wing groups as part of her official role and USAID’s mission to fight a spate of global issues ranging from poverty to education. 

‘Administrator Power meets with a wide variety of officials and sectors to discuss USAID’s mission to reduce extreme poverty, fight child malnutrition, spur economic growth, expand educational opportunities around the world, and build resilient global health systems,’ a USAID spokesperson told Fox News Digital in 2023. ‘Working with philanthropies and the private sector to catalyze resources to tackle these complex global challenges is important to improving the quality of life for people around the world.’

Taxpayer funds directed to Chinese entities known for coronavirus research

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report in 2023 finding that both USAID and the National Institutes of Health directed taxpayer funds to American universities and a nonprofit organization before the money found its way to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The report found that between 2014 and 2021, U.S. taxpayer funds were redirected to entities including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Wuhan University and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, which is part of the Chinese Communist Party. The three groups each received more than $2 million combined from the U.S. government ‘through seven subawards,’ according to the GAO report.

‘The selected entities are government institutions or laboratories in China that conduct work on infectious diseases, including pandemic viruses, and have had actions taken by federal agencies to address safety or security concerns,’ the report states. ‘All three selected Chinese entities received funds.’

In January, the CIA under the second Trump administration released an updated assessment on the origins of COVID-19, favoring the theory that the contagious disease was due to a lab leak. The CIA previously had maintained that it did not have sufficient evidence to conclude whether COVID originated in a lab or a ‘wet market’ in Wuhan, China.

USAID accused of removing negative findings from inspector general reports 

Eight auditors and employees for the USAID inspector general’s office sounded the alarm to the Washington Post in 2014 that negative findings surrounding the agency’s work were removed from final reports and audits.

In the wake of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, for example, USAID established NGO-led, pro-democracy programs in the nation, though the NGO workers were not registered to work in the country, the Washington Post reported in 2014. Egypt arrested 43 NGO workers, including 16 Americans, for operating illegally in the country, with USAID quietly paying Egypt $4.6 million to bail out the Americans, according to the report. 

When auditors questioned the bail payment to the Egyptian government in a draft IG report, the findings were not included in the final report that was made publicly available just months later. Instead, the 21-page draft report was whittled down to a nine-page report. The auditors and employees who spoke to the outlet reported that negative comments were removed from various audits between 2011 and 2013.

‘The office is a watchdog not doing its job,’ a retired audit supervisor at the inspector general’s office told the outlet. ‘It’s just easier for upper management to go along to get along. The message is: ‘Don’t make waves, don’t report any problems.’’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that he is now the acting director of USAID. 

‘USAID is not functioning. It has to be aligned with U.S. policy. It needs to be aligned with the national interest of the U.S.,’ he told reporters while in El Salvador. ‘They’re not a global charity. These are taxpayer dollars. People are asking simple questions. What are they doing with the money? We are spending taxpayers money. We owe the taxpayers assurances that it furthers our national interest.’

‘I am the acting director,’ he confirmed when asked if he is now in charge. ‘Our goal was to allow our foreign aid with the national interest. It has been 20 or 30 years. They have tried to reform it. That will not continue.’ 

Rubio became the Trump administration’s first confirmed cabinet member on Jan. 20. Days after his confirmation, the State Department announced a pause on all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID out of an effort to ensure current American policies reflect Trump’s administration’s priorities. 

‘Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, Secretary [Marco] Rubio has paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for review,’ the statement read. ‘He is initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda. President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people.’

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Benjamin Weinthal and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.