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US ally accuses Biden admin of using USAID as a ‘tool to interfere with domestic issues’
President Donald Trump’s second administration has made the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) a prime target for spending cuts. Under Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is taking a serious look at the foreign aid agency — and America’s allies and enemies alike are taking notice.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital at the United Nations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó didn’t hide his disdain for USAID. While insisting that he was not interested in interfering with US domestic issues, Szijjártó did speak about what he saw from the agency under former President Joe Biden.
«The former administration couldn’t digest that we weren’t ready to give up our national positions. We were not ready to give up representing our national interests,» Szijjártó told Fox News Digital. «And we were not ready to give up our non-liberal, patriotic, conservative type of approach.»
Former President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM
Szijjártó also accused the Biden administration of using USAID to «destabilize the situation in other countries» and to fund «programs which were totally alien and strange compared to the culture and the heritage of other countries.»
«If you ask me whether it’s good to us that there’s a revision period of 90 days when it comes to payments regarding USAID and others, we are very happy,» Szijjártó added.
USAID HAS ‘DEMONSTRATED PATTERN OF OBSTRUCTIONISM,’ CLAIMS TOP DOGE REPUBLICAN IN LETTER TO RUBIO
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump, also ripped USAID after it was reported that the agency was funding Politico.
Prime Minister Orbán followed up in another tweet saying, «We had to endure for years that the ultra-progressive, self-proclaimed human rights champions of the mainstream media demonized Patriotic political forces for years. They did it because they were paid to do so by USAID and the previous, left-wing US administration. I agree with President [Trump]: this is too big and too dirty to hide from.»
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during Wednesday’s press briefing that «more than $8 million taxpayer dollars» went to Politico, adding that DOGE is «working on canceling those payments.» However, the publication denied that it has ever been a «beneficiary of government programs.»
Musk, who is heading up Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through DOGE, described the agency as a «viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.»
Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
MEET THE BIDEN-ERA USAID LEADER FACING BACKLASH AMID MUSK’S DOGE CRACKDOWN
On Monday, Trump’s White House issued a list of examples of «waste and abuse» at USAID. This included $6M to fund tourism in Egypt, $1.5M in funding for DEI programs in Serbia’s workplaces, $47,000 for a «transgender opera» in Colombia and more.
The White House also accused the agency of spending «hundreds of millions of dollars» on «irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,» adding that this was «benefiting the Taliban.»
Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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At the end of its list, the White House noted that the highlighted examples were part of a longer list of projects.
«Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,» the White House added.
INTERNACIONAL
Trump downplays China-Russia-Iran nuclear talks, says they may discuss ‘de-escalation’
President Donald Trump, speaking from the Oval Office Thursday, downplayed an upcoming nuclear summit in Beijing between Iran, Russia, and China, three chief adversaries of the U.S.
The discussions, first confirmed by the Chinese foreign ministry Thursday and which come just days after Iran rebuffed Trump’s push to engage in nuclear negotiations, will coincide with a United Nations Security Council meeting regarding Tehran’s expansion of near-weapons-grade uranium.
Trump suggested perhaps Beijing, Moscow and Tehran will be having their own discussions on «de-escalation.»
«Well, maybe they’re going to talk about non-nuclear problems. Maybe they’re going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons,» Trump told reporters.
TRUMP ‘HOPES’ PUTIN AGREES TO CEASEFIRE AS MOSCOW SIGNALS NO TRUCE YET
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (Getty Images)
Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin once engaged in «strong» talks about nuclear weapons and said he believes, had he won the 2016 election, further Russian denuclearization would have been on the table.
«I think I would have made a deal with Putin on de-escalation, denuclearization,» Trump said. «But we would have de-escalated nuclear weapons because the power of nuclear weapons is so great and so devastating.»
The president also claimed that China would «catch us in five years» because of its rapid development of its nuclear stockpiles, though this would be far sooner than other experts have warned.
The Pentagon in 2024 assessed that China is believed to have 600 nuclear weapons, up from the low 200s in 2020. But, in a report Wednesday, experts with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said claims that China will be a «peer» or «near peer» with the U.S. in the near future were a «gross exaggeration.»
POLAND CALLS ON US TO PLACE NUKES WITHIN ITS BORDERS AMID RUSSIA THREAT
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House March 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
«There is no evidence that China’s ongoing nuclear expansion will result in parity with the U.S. arsenal,» the report said. «Even the worst-case 2023 projection of 1,500 warheads by 2035 amounts to less than half of the current U.S. nuclear stockpile.»
Russia is believed to have 5,580 nuclear weapons, and the U.S. is reported to have 5,225, while China comes in at a distant third, according to the Arms Control Association.
Concerns over North Korea’s largely unchecked nuclear program have also continued to mount in recent years, particularly after Pyongyang formed closer ties with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
«It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number,» Trump said.
«You don’t need them to that extent,» he added, noting the immense destruction even one nuclear weapon could inflict.
North Korea is estimated to have 50 nuclear weapons, which Trump noted is «a lot.»
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, supervises artillery firing drills in North Korea March 7, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
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But he also pointed to the positive relationship he had with Kim Jong Un during his first presidency and suggested that relationship could extend during his second term. Trump appeared to suggest there could be room for nuclear negotiations.
«I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, and we’ll see what happens,» Trump told reporters. «But certainly he’s a nuclear power.»
INTERNACIONAL
«Sobres», comidas y viajes: investigan coimas de Huawei en el Parlamento Europeo y hay varios detenidos
¿Qué es Huawei?
Algunas naciones europeas han seguido el ejemplo de Washington y han prohibido el equipo de Huawei. Foto: ReutersLos «regalos»
El segundo escándalo de corrupción
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Perú: en huelga de hambre, el ex presidente Pedro Castillo fue internado por una descompensación
El ex presidente peruano Pedro Castillo fue trasladado el jueves desde la cárcel donde permanece prisión preventiva hasta un hospital de Lima por presentar una descompensación en su salud, tras iniciar el lunes una huelga de hambre en protesta por el juicio por rebelión en su contra.
El tribunal de la Corte Suprema que lo juzga informó al inicio de la sesión del jueves que Castillo, de 55 años, fue enviado a un hospital por presentar una “descompensación” y para descartar un “trastorno hidroelectrolítico y una deshidratación leve”.
Castillo inició el lunes una huelga de hambre en protesta. La fiscalía ha pedido 34 años de cárcel por el presunto delito de rebelión, abierto en su contra por su intento de disolver el Congreso en diciembre de 2021 para evitar una votación de destitución y gobernar por decreto.
El ex presidente está en prisión preventiva desde el 7 de diciembre de 2022, el día en que leyó un discurso ante las cámaras de la televisión pública para gobernar por decreto y en el que no fue respaldado por las fuerzas de seguridad. Fue detenido a la salida y la justicia ordenó tres años de prisión preventiva en su contra mientras es procesado por rebelión.
El Congreso lo destituyó ese día y su entonces vicepresidenta Dina Boluarte asumió el poder. Hubo tres meses de protestas en los Andes que dejaron 50 civiles fallecidos.
El ex presidente ha calificado el juicio de “pantomima” y ha cuestionado a Norma Carbajal, una jueza del tribunal que lo juzga, por haber adelantado su opinión. Solicitó que sea reemplazada.
Castillo se ha negado a tener una defensa legal en el juicio y su primer abogado gratuito renunció. Ahora tiene a otros dos abogados gratuitos a quienes también ha rechazado. El martes otro informe de la agencia que administra las cárceles peruanas indicó que los médicos de la fiscalía habían diagnosticado a Castillo con “una ligera deshidratación” en el segundo día de su huelga de hambre.
El profesor rural que llegó al poder en 2021 también enfrenta otra investigación en la fiscalía por actos de presunta corrupción durante su gobierno, que incluyen ascensos irregulares dentro del escalafón militar y la designación de un consorcio para construir un puente sin respetar supuestamente las bases de un concurso.
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