“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” reads the very first sentence of Article II of the Constitution. “A” is singular. There is a President of the United States. He has the executive power. The federal bureaucracy operates under the President. Congress has, in some cases, established executive departments that the President cannot get rid of due to their statutory origin. Congress has granted some executive powers that the President cannot get rid of due to their statutory origins. But everyone in the executive branch serves at the pleasure of the President and, with few limits, he gets to direct the executive branch. //

rump is, they claim, engaged in a coup against the American administrative state.

One can hardly launch a coup against oneself. The executive power is vested in a single President, not an administrative state. Mr. Trump is retrieving powers long ago distributed to unelected bureaucrats who have used that power to advance progressive goals even when progressives do not hold power. //

Contrary to some Trump supporters’ claims, USAID did not spend $50 million on condoms for Gaza. It was $45 million and included “sexual and other reproductive health care” for Gaza, not just condoms. There was, separately, $10 million for condoms in the Gaza Province of Mozambique, in Africa. USAID also spent $2 million on healthcare for transgender youth in Guatemala; $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma; $520 million for leftwing ESG investments in Africa; and $45 million to promote social justice and democracy based on the theories of an Italian Marxist professor. The money flows through and subsidizes various leftwing NGOs. Virtually one hundred percent of USAID’s top outside contractors, recipients of billions of dollars, donate to the Democratic Party. Tim Meisburger, a former USAID employee, discovered that “Of the top 17 grantees and partners of USAID’s Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, 14 saw 100 percent of their political donations during the 2019–2020 election cycle directed to Democratic Party causes with only one (the International Republican Institute) under 90 percent.”

Therein lies the reason Republicans now wish to wind down USAID and Democrats wish to preserve it. The organization is not just a clearing house for aid from the United States to the developing world but both a boundary-breaking vanguard of progressive funding abroad and a pass-through source of Democratic Party donations domestically.

The State Department can run PEPFAR and other programs. USAID is not a necessary entity.

" Medical conditions associated with unreactive pupils include brain injury, stroke, and certain neurological disorders
" Seek immediate medical attention if you experience unreactive pupils along with severe headache, dizziness, or loss of consciousness

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt battled the press on Monday, listing off several grants she described as "insane." That includes over a million dollars to push DEI in Serbia and tens of thousands of dollars for a transgender opera in Colombia. As it turns out, those examples were just the tip of the iceberg. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) put out a thread on Tuesday and you won't believe what your money has been going to.

On second thought, you might believe it given our government's track record, but it's still jarring. Take a walk with me because things are about to get crazy.

Yuchen Jin @Yuchenj_UW

judging an engineer by age is BS

• Linus Torvalds wrote Linux at 21
• Steve Wozniak built Apple I at 25
• Palmer Luckey created Oculus VR at 20
• Vitalik Buterin designed Ethereum at 19
• Mark Zuckerberg coded Facebook at 19

Looking back, I realize that 18-25 is the peak time.

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation."

Things are about to get much worse, though, so buckle up. According to recently revealed records, left-leaning news outlet Politico received over thirty-four million dollars from USAID and other government agencies. That money went to pay for "subscriptions" for various bureaucratic officials, including "pro" subscriptions that add up to over $10,000 a pop. //

Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze
·
Guess which outlet the Biden campaign and intel officials solicited the laptop letter story to?

Sunny @sunnyright
We do indeed appear to be funneling large sums of tax money to @politico so that some bureaucrats can read left-wing journalists complain about Republicans
9:02 AM · Feb 5, 2025. //

There's more, though, and while it's speculative, it's certainly a pretty big coincidence. After all the funding from USAID to Politico got shut down in late January, they suddenly missed their next pay period, claiming "technical difficulties.". //

If you've ever wondered how some of these left-wing news outlets stay afloat financially, what has been revealed about Politico is one big reason. Democrats use federal agencies to funnel money for the express purpose of influencing elections and pushing left-wing ideology. It's been out in the open with organizations like NPR and PBS, but the level of corruption we are going to find out about will be mind-blowing. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Politico should not survive this. To take millions of dollars from the entity you are covering and not let your readers know about it is a huge breach of journalistic ethics. Hopefully, this leads to major investigations because does anyone actually believe it costs $447,998 for 37 subscriptions to a news site? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

Kennedy's Executive Order 10973 named the USAID. But read the first line carefully.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (75 Stat. 424) and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, and as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

This corresponds to a Congressional directive, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. That law required Kennedy to create a foreign aid organization to replace the hodgepodge then in existence. The law lists a wide range of international aid activities required by Congress and directs the president to put those functions under a single person.

The President may exercise any functions conferred upon him by this Act through such agency or officer of the United States Government as he shall direct. Tne head of any such agency or such officer may from time to time promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out such functions, and may delegate authority to perform any such functions, including, if he shall so specify, the authority successively to redelegate any of such functions to any of his subordinates. //

Such designation and authorization shall be in writing, shall be published in the Federal Register, shall be subject to such terms, conditions, and limitations as the President may deem advisable, and shall be revocable at any time by the President in whole or in part. //

From the beginning, the USAID administrator has required Senate approval and has had a budget.

Because Congress created the agency, President Trump will either gut it and leave the remnant alive or set off a direct conflict with Congress, which he may or may not want.

Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal
🇺🇸🇸🇻 TRUMP AND RUBIO’S PRISON DEAL WITH EL SALVADOR IS A LEGAL AND STRATEGIC MASTERSTROKE

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have secured a historic agreement with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that will allow the U.S. to deport violent criminals—regardless of nationality—to serve their sentences in El Salvador’s high-security mega-prison. This bold initiative will cut prison costs, reduce overcrowding, and enhance public safety by removing dangerous criminals from U.S. soil.
...

The truth is, with every discovery of waste and corruption, I feel even more excited about what Musk is doing. With every panicked and angry speech given by a Democrat, my confidence in what Musk is doing is only increases.

I'm not just feeling hostile, I feel happily hostile.

But one thing needs to be understood by Psaki and the Democrats. This is definitely a takeover, but it's not a takeover by Trump or Musk, it's from the people. All the hostility they're feeling is coming from us, the people whose tax dollars were wasted and even used against us. Before we stopped them, they wanted to empower the IRS with our own tax dollars to take even more of our tax dollars.

Have a happily hostile year, everyone!

Ernst’s struggle to hold USAID accountable frustrated Musk who called the agency’s obstruction of her attempts to investigate ‘outrageous.’. //

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst disclosed in an X Spaces forum with DOGE Head Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday that USAID issued “all kinds of threats” to the Republican and her office for her attempt to “exercise my oversight capacity in Congress.”

Ernst first pressed USAID on how it used its tax dollars to pay the facilities and administrative costs outlined in Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreements (NICRAs) in November 2022. //

When USAID finally responded in February 2023, the agency claimed it did not “have a system to track or report on this data, as it is not possible to compare indirect costs between for-profit and nonprofit organizations at the rate level.”

One week later, Ernst’s staff debunked this claim by sending USAID a link “to a publicly reported NICRA database.” USAID confirmed the existence of a database but once again refused to indulge Ernst’s demands.

This time, the agency claimed that divulging NICRA information was impossible because it would violate several federal laws including “the Economic Espionage Act, Protection of Trade Secrets Act, and Disclosure of Confidential Information Act.” //

Eventually, Ernst’s staff was permitted access to “very limited data” about USAID’s indirect costs.

“They were allowed to go into a room and they couldn’t take notes. They were on camera the whole time. They couldn’t remove any of the information,” Ernst told Musk.

Even with “very limited data,” Ernst said her staff discovered USAID spent “anywhere from 50 to 60 percent” on indirect costs which could range from someone’s “rent in Paris” to a “fancy dinner to entertain whomever.”

"I’ve left instructions," Trump said. "If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left. And they shouldn’t be able to do it."

The comments came as the president signed an executive order restoring a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, something he indicated he was "unhappy" to do because it was really tough on Iran but necessary since he believes they are "close" to building a nuclear weapon. //

President Trump's threat to obliterate Iran if they dare carry out threats on his life is reminiscent of a similar warning he issued to Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Baradar, now Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister, was involved in negotiations for the United States withdrawal with Trump during his first term. And he received a hell of a threat from the then-president, reminding him not to harm a single American.

“Under my conversations with Abdul, who’s the leader of the Taliban, for 18 months, we didn’t lose one soldier,” Trump bragged in an interview with Sean Hannity, adding that he told Baradar he’d “obliterate” him if he failed to follow orders in their negotiations to withdraw.

To drive home the point, Trump sent him a lovely picture.

"I sent him a picture of his house,” he revealed. “He said, ‘But why, but why do you send me a picture of my house?’ I said, ‘You have to figure that one out.'”

Elon Musk @elonmusk
.
Fraud in the federal government is closer to 10% of disbursements, so more like ~$700 billion per year.

Outright waste is at least 15%, so another trillion+ dollars.

Anyone who works in government knows this.

Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger
·
Forty-three paragraphs into the NYT's latest hit piece on @elonmusk, the six (!) by-lined reporters reveal that the federal government lost $236 billion to apparent fraud ("improper payments") in 2023 alone. Maybe this isn't the dunk you guys thought it was?