By Wale Odunsi President Donald Trump has suggested that large-scale fraud was perpetrated in multiple donations made by the previou...
By Wale Odunsi
President Donald Trump has suggested that large-scale fraud
was perpetrated in multiple donations made by the previous United States
government to countries worldwide.
Trump expressed vexation about how hundreds of billions of
dollars in taxpayers’ money were spent on questionable programs and contracts
across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The beneficiary nations identified include Cambodia,
Czechia, India, Kosovo, Liberia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, Nepal, Serbia,
South Africa, and Uganda, among others.
The U.S. leader addressed a news conference on Tuesday at
Mar-a-Lago after signing three presidential memoranda, in addition to dozens of
executive orders already in effect.
The new orders relate to “radical transparency about
wasteful spending,” “ensuring accountability for all agencies,” and “expanding
access to in vitro fertilization (IVF)” to improve the availability and
affordability of treatments.
Trump decried the “waste” uncovered by the Department of
Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, saying, “They are finding
levels of fraud and waste and abuse I think nobody ever thought possible.”
“Incredible things are happening in our country,” the
president stressed. “We’ve made more progress in three weeks than they made in
four years, especially with respect to the reputation of our country. People
are respecting us again.”
Asked to clarify Musk’s role in his administration after the
White House, in a court filing, stated that the senior advisor has no authority
to make decisions, Trump called the Tesla CEO “a patriot” for his efforts.
The president, while reading from a paper, said the
information DOGE submitted to him revealed that millions of people between the
ages of 100 and 249—even some as old as 360—were receiving Social Security
payments.
Providing specific figures on expenditures outside America,
Trump said:
“$520 million for a consultant on the environment. It’s
called environmental, social, and governance investments in Africa. Somebody
got $520 million for environmental studies.
“$25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and licit
livelihoods by developing socially responsible behavior in Colombia. Wow,
that’s nice—$25 million for something that nobody ever heard of.
“$40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of
sedentary migrants; $42 million for Johns Hopkins to research and drive social and
behavioral change in Uganda. What about us?
“$70 million for a center at Purdue to research
university-sourced, evidence-based solutions to develop mental challenges.
These are massive numbers for things that nobody ever heard about.
“$10 million for voluntary medical male circumcisions in
Mozambique… $10 million for circumcision in another country; $9.7 million for
UC Berkeley to develop a cohort of Cambodian youths with enterprise-driven
skills.
“$2.3 million for strengthening independent voices in
Cambodia; $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Centre… wonder how much of
that money came back to the people who approved it.
“$14 million for public procurement in Serbia; $486 million
to the consortium for elections and political process strengthening, including
$22 million for an inclusive and participatory political process in Moldova.
“$21 million for voter turnout in India; $20 million for
fiscal federalism in Nepal. Listen to these numbers—this is all fraud. $19
million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal.
“$1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia; $14 million
for social cohesion in Mali; $2.5 million for inclusive democracy in South
Africa; $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia.
“$2 million to develop sustainable recycling models to
increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalized communities in Kosovo,
Ashkali, and Egypt.
“We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I
could read this all day long. We have a very corrupt country. And it’s a sad
thing to say, but we’re figuring it out,” said Trump.
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