Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt said Thursday on Fox News that “permanent Washington [D.C.’s] worst nightmare” has arrived due to the Trump administration’s cuts to government bloating, and he predicted the cuts will continue.
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) future was said to begin to crumble on Monday when Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, said during an X space discussion that he and President Donald Trump had discussed shuttering the agency. With USAID’s transfer under the eye of the State Department, reports of billions of taxpayer-funded dollars potentially being wasted have surfaced, prompting Republicans to call for more cuts to agencies that they say also waste taxpayer money.
On “The Ingraham Angle,” Fox host Laura Ingraham asked Schmitt about the cuts, highlighting a report from Reuters alleging the Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 USAID staff members out of more than 10,000 worldwide.
“It’s incredible. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, we’re just talking about USAID right now,” Schmitt said. “Wait till they get to the other agencies that have been bloated and unaccountable. This is permanent Washington’s worst nightmare, which is why you see this hair on fire moment right now, because they’ve been able to hide behind this sort of secrecy for far too long.”
“You mentioned some of these programs. They know that if the American taxpayer knew what this money was being spent on, they would object. You’d have sort of a new Tea Party moment in this country and it’s all coming to light, which is a good thing. We want this fight, Laura,” Schmitt added.
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The Republican lawmaker went on to read a partial list of where some of the USAID funding was going.
“I have a partial list. I just want to read a couple more things. You mentioned the Girls Senate Climate Action in Brazil, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, $1.5 billion for DEI in Serbia, $47,000 for a trans opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a trans comic book in Peru, $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala,” Schmitt said.
“That is just the beginning of this stuff. So I think this is a really important field, I think, for us to fight on,” Schmitt said. “The Democrats are essentially the guardians of permanent Washington right now, and we should welcome this fight.”
Following the announcement of the USAID change, Democratic lawmakers began pushing back, saying the move to place USAID under the control of the State Department is illegal. Democratic lawmakers, however, have overall opposed Musk and his involvement with the Trump administration, protesting Tuesday outside the Department of Treasury building, telling supporters to fight back against Musk’s alleged “hostile takeover” of federal financial systems.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
