The United States (US)ย President, Donald Trump, on Tuesday said large-scale fraud was perpetrated in multiple donations made by the previous US government to countries worldwide.
President Trump made this remark during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago after signing three presidential memoranda, in addition to dozens of executive orders already in effect.
Trump expressed vexation about how hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayersโ 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 new orders relate to โradical transparency about wasteful spending,โ โensuring accountability for all agencies,โ and โexpanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF)โ to improve the availability and affordability of treatments.
Trump decried the โwasteโ uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, saying, โThey are finding levels of fraud and waste and abuse I think nobody ever thought possible.โ
โIncredible things are happening in our country,โ the president stressed. โWeโve 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.โ
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Asked to clarify Muskโs 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 โa patriotโ 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 249โeven some as old as 360โwere receiving Social Security payments.
Providing specific figures on expenditures outside America, Trump said: โ$520 million for a consultant on the environment. Itโs called environmental, social, and governance investments in Africa. Somebody got $520 million for environmental studies.
โ$25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and licit livelihoods by developing socially responsible behavior in Colombia. Wow, thatโs niceโ$25 million for something that nobody ever heard of.
โ$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?
โ$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.
โ$10 million for voluntary medical male circumcisions in Mozambiqueโฆ $10 million for circumcision in another country; $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop a cohort of Cambodian youths with enterprise-driven skills.
โ$2.3 million for strengthening independent voices in Cambodia; $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Centreโฆ wonder how much of that money came back to the people who approved it.
โ$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.
โ$21 million for voter turnout in India; $20 million for fiscal federalism in Nepal. Listen to these numbersโthis is all fraud. $19 million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal.
โ$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.
โ$2 million to develop sustainable recycling models to increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalized communities in Kosovo, Ashkali, and Egypt.
โWeโre talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I could read this all day long. We have a very corrupt country. And itโs a sad thing to say, but weโre figuring it out,โ said Trump.
