USAID, targeted by Elon Musk and Donald Trump for cuts, is a heavy funder of news outlets in Ukraine, according to a new report. The agency has come under scrutiny for wasteful and ideological projects.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provides funds to 90 percent of Ukrainian news outlets, according to a new report from the Columbia Journalism Review and Reporters Without Borders.
While much focus has been on USAID and other federal entities subscribing to news outlets such as Politico, a broader issue may be taxpayers paying for news coverage in foreign countries.
Working off data from Reporters Without Borders, the Columbia Journalism Review reported that "USAID had boasted of supporting more than six thousand journalists, around seven hundred independent newsrooms, and nearly three hundred media-focused civil society groups in thirty or so countries."
The Trump administration reportedly froze $268 million for these endeavors.
"RSF also noted the harsh effect on journalism in Ukraine, where 90 percent of news organizations rely on USAID funding, some very heavily," the Journalism Review reported.
The United States has spent nearly $66 billion on direct military assistance to Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. Taxpayers have sent another $120 billion or so to the country in other foreign aid, according to an inspector general report current as of September 30, 2024.
The journalism groups released the reports ostensibly to defend U.S. funding of outlets.
On a related issue, the Trump administration is also cutting off taxpayer-funded subscriptions that government employees set up with news outlets.
"I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers’ dime will no longer be happening," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press conference yesterday.
Politico itself had not received $8 million in subscriptions, but the press secretary, who said she learned of the issue right before the briefing, was referring to outlets in general.
"The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," she said.
She stated further:
Again, this is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that we are going line by line when it comes to the federal government’s books. And this president and his team are making decisions across the board on ‘Do these receipts serve the interests of the American people? Is this a good use of the American taxpayers’ money? If it is not, that funding will no longer be sent abroad and American taxpayers will be seeing significant savings because of that effort.
Conservatives celebrated the news.
"The Federal Government is not a good steward of your tax dollars," Josh Tanner, an Idaho state representative, wrote on X. "They spent $8 Million on propaganda media. This is even more of a reason for Idaho tax dollars to be accounted for, applied appropriately, and reduced where necessary. The Fed has failed, our state must succeed.""Even if the govt money to Politico wasn’t an outright grant, providing $8 Million in taxpayers funds for 'subscriptions' to a super Lefty publication is just absurd and abusive to hard-working Americans!" conservative commentator Steve Cortes wrote.
A payroll issue with Politico's payroll was initially blamed on the funding freeze, though the company said it was a "technical error" that created the problem.
USAID under scrutiny, uses tax dollars to promote DEI around the worldThe Trump administration has closed, at least temporarily, USAID. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now the administrator of the agency, which has funded a variety of ideological projects across the globe.
"USAID has a history of ignoring [the national interest of the United States] and deciding that they’re a global charity. These are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars," Secretary Rubio said recently.
Leavitt highlighted some of the ideological and wasteful projects funded through this agency, including "$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workforce."
The agency has also been used to pressure conservative, poorer countries into adopting pro-abortion policies, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce highlighted other wasteful projects in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
She listed projects the freeze had stopped, including "$16 million in unjustified funding for institutional contractors in the gender development offices," "$4 million to unjustified funding for the Center for Climate-Positive Development," and "$600,000 to fund technical assistance for family planning in Latin America."
