Olusegun Ariyo
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 for 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 behaviour 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 behavioural change in Uganda. What about us?
“$70 million for a centre at Purdue to research university-sourced, evidence-based solutions to developmental 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.
