I hope Trump investigates this entire affair and all the players involved, whoever they are. Even going back in time.

Prof Natsios's A&M profile
https://bush.tamu.edu/faculty/anatsios/

'What Elon Musk Said Is a Bold-Faced Lie'
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/04/elon-musk-usaid-00202409

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In recent days, the Trump administration has taken steps to shutter the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, which distributes billions of dollars worldwide annually to help alleviate poverty, treat diseases and respond to famines and natural disasters, as well as promote development and democracy. President Donald Trump has said USAID is run by "lunatic radicals" who promote leftist causes and his appointed efficiency expert, billionaire Elon Musk, has called USAID a "criminal organization" that "needs to die." Now Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he's the acting director of USAID, and the administration is reportedly trying to fold the agency into the State Department.
But Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush and is a lifelong conservative Republican, calls such moves "illegal" and "outrageous." What Musk and Rubio are doing "is criminal. They can't abolish the aid program without a vote of Congress."
Moreover, Natsios says, they miss the point that USAID is critical to winning the competition with China and reflects longstanding Republican priorities.

"It's just 1 percent of the federal budget, right?" says Natsios, who also played a leading role in building World Vision, the largest Christian nongovernmental organization in the world with programs in 103 countries. "And it builds goodwill and political influence and economic influence. It promotes American business. It protects us in terms of disease threats around the world. It is in our national interest to run these programs."

Under Natsios, who now teaches at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, USAID nearly doubled its budget to $14 billion with a worldwide workforce of 8,100 employees operating in more than 80 countries, including major aid projects in three war zones Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan. Natsios was also instrumental in launching one of the most successful programs in USAID history, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR, which has saved some 25 million lives since 2003, and a public-private partnership program entitled the Global Development Alliance. USAID currently manages more than $40 billion annually, as of fiscal year 2023

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What is your response to what's happened to USAID at the hands of the Trump administration over the last several days?

First, what Elon Musk said is a bold-faced lie. Second, it's the worst idea I could possibly imagine to fold it into State. When Australia folded its aid agency into the secretary of State's office and they did the same thing in Canada with their Foreign Office all of the development functions eventually withered away. There are no aid agencies in those countries now.
Why is it a terrible idea? I think the State Department is one of the best diplomatic institutions in the world. I have great respect for our diplomats, but they are not program managers. They don't do assessments, they don't do evaluations of aid programs. They don't understand how you quantify data. They don't have agricultural economists. They don't have public health expertise. The people in State are policy people. And what's going to happen over time is they're going to hire generalists, not specialists. We hire people with PhDs. We need people of expertise in education or in health or in agricultural development or these different development disciplines.

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Natsios is a nice man but his time is past.

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But Andrew Natsios, who ran USAID under President George W. Bush and is a lifelong conservative Republican, calls such moves "illegal" and "outrageous."

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Natsios, that was then, this is now.

Oh look! A Bush School swamp mofo! Surprise, surprise, surprise…

Highway6 said:

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Screw him and the horse he rode in on

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I swear in my post above, I did not see this. Great minds think alike.

USAID is rife with fraud. Whatever legitimate help they may have been doing is forever tainted by it.

MaroonStain said:

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Natsios, that was then, this is now.

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Exactly. That may have been the case when he ran it (doubtful). But the dems weaponized a lot over the past 30 years. Either he's on the take still or he's a naive old man.

My take is USAID originated to serve a meaningful task decades ago, but morphed into a portion of it becoming a corrupt money laundering scheme for political influence and lining pockets at the expense of tax payers. Largely led by progressive globalist democrats and some uniparty republicans. It's seems to have been on steroids under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Time to cut the corruption out of it, establish new leadership to serve the purpose of American interest, not the interests of democrat swamp rats.

US aid is fine if done correctly WHEN the US has a budget surplus. But we don't anymore. So no more US aid.

You can tell who was on the take from USAID by how loudly they protest.

Sorry, the taxpayer funded gravy train is over.

They literally found money from USAID paying subscriptions for politico.... It what world is it OK to tax payer FUND a political website that is staunchly on one side???

This is basically treason. I'd say the same if USAID was funding Fox News or some AM conservative radio show.

Funny that he argues Canada and Australia messed up by folding their aid programs under the State Department. Looks like they were successful to me.

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"It's just 1 percent of the federal budget, right?" says Natsios

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This is the interesting thing right?

Trump signs an EO to close the border. Nothing from the Dems (supposed big issue)
Trump signs an EO to tariff allies. Nothing from the Dems
Trump signs an EO saying boys can't compete against girls (another big issue)

And yet when Trump begins to dismantle just 1% of the federal budget related to an organization within the Executive Branch, the Dems go nuts.

Kind of interesting right?

"Under Natsios, who now teaches at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, USAID nearly doubled its budget to $14 billion with a worldwide workforce of 8,100 employees"

Typical bureaucrat brag. The only way bureaucrats evaluate their success is by how much they grew their programs.

And Politico found a "conservative" stooge to rail against their funding being cut off. The playbooks is out in the open now, that dog won't hunt.

I have to admit I'm loving all the squirming as these people learn about accountability. The real world has to deal with it daily. Something about a goose and a gander..

I guess he did Natsios see that coming.

You want to spread goodwill and charity to alleviate poverty around the world?

NO ONE IS STOPPING YOU FROM DONATING YOUR OWN MONEY AND TIME, PAL!

Didn't USAID give 40 million to a transgendered opera in Columbia?

Yeah, this guy is a dumb ass. I'm tired of my tax dollars funding garbage like this, when people in Appalachia are still homeless and struggling from the floods, and our farmers cannot budget a profit with today's input costs.

America first.

Every single one of these folks says nothing about what has been uncovered.

If you don't approve of how it's being done, fine. Make your point. But to not even acknowledge there are major problems/fraud/waste abolishes any credibility your argument may have had.

In short - I hope everyone involved rots in prison.

The actions aren't illegal and certainly are not outrageous.

This guy is missing that the US public is DONE with the swamp doling out our taxpayer $$ for anything and everything and continually running up the debt. There are too many examples to list of USAID fraud and from numerous other agencies. All NGO funding needs to stop and just about every agency is funding NGOs at some level.

USAID should only provide food and medical supplies for humanitarian reasons and is should be physical goods, not cash. It is NOT the responsibility of the US public to provide and pay for international development, period. Anything above and beyond food and medical suppliers would need to be 1000% aligned with US interests and provide a direct and tangible benefit to the US.

Improving wi-fi access to bean farmers in El Salvador is not in the interest of US taxpayers or provide a direct and tangible benefit to the US, Providing the funding for public radio in unknown central European countries, much less so many of the outrageous and scandalous examples, it is just waster and abuse of US taxpayer $$.

Anyone that thinks like this guy is missing the point as he believes the $$ is not from taxpayers, it is just US Federal Government $$ from issuing debt. Well, every single penny of the interest and the debt itself is going to have to be paid for by US taxpayers.

Aggies do not lie, cheat , or steal, but they can grift well, evidently.

Natsios , you need to…

SIT DOWN, BUS DRIVER!

Desert Ag said:

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Oh look! A Bush School swamp mofo! Surprise, surprise, surprise…

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Sounds like we'll find his name listed on the USAID corrupt money trail. Keep going, Elon! We want names and the receipts.

Bush library is a giant cia office. No surprise USAID is involved in our university.

I wonder if our esteemed "Professor" will chime in when it's revealed SeeBS was paid by USAID for their 60 Minutes Kamala Harris farce of an interview?

Sounds like it's already known Politico received millions from USAID. What a coincidence, huh?

Sounds like this dude needs to be audited

I would love to know how much USAID money is flowing through TAMU. I am going say $50,000,000 of the top of my head!

I am not surprised about the Prof. I go to a lot of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs events, and they are very much a globalist organization using tax dollars for "good work." I always think, they never promote America!

I have an oddly happy demeanor today...All those years of intuition KNOWING there was a "man behind the curtain" are proven true. Being told over and over again that "no, that is crazy. no way all of the media is controlled like that" Very excited to watch it all burn down so we can rebuild on our founding principles