The Claim

Stopped the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID — ensuring taxpayers are no longer on the hook for funding the pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, such as sex changes in Guatemala.

The Claim, Unpacked

What is literally being asserted?

Three things: (1) USAID was characterized by waste, fraud, and abuse; (2) the administration stopped it; and (3) a representative example of the waste is taxpayer funding of “sex changes in Guatemala.”

What is being implied but not asserted?

That USAID was systemically corrupt — not occasionally flawed in the way every large institution is, but rotten at its core. That “sex changes in Guatemala” was a typical USAID program rather than an inflammatory cherry-pick. That dismantling the agency was a proportionate response to identified problems. That taxpayers are better off now. That the alternative to the specific programs cut was money returned to taxpayers, rather than money simply not spent on foreign aid.

What is conspicuously absent?

That USAID received a clean financial audit opinion in FY2024 — no material weaknesses. That the agency’s own Inspector General identified just $26.5 million in total monetary benefits (questioned costs, recoveries, and savings) against $21.7 billion in annual spending — a 0.12% rate. That the IG was fired the day after releasing a report finding the administration’s own actions had degraded oversight capacity. That the “sex changes in Guatemala” claim is a distortion of a $2 million grant (of which only $350,000 was disbursed) that funded health access, economic empowerment, and advocacy — not surgeries. That the White House’s own list of 12 examples of USAID waste was fact-checked by multiple outlets, with only one of twelve claims found to be accurate. That USAID’s dissolution has been projected by peer-reviewed research in The Lancet to cause more than 14 million additional preventable deaths by 2030. That multiple federal courts found the funding freezes unconstitutional. That the administration did not “stop waste, fraud, and abuse” — it stopped USAID.

Evidence Assessment

Established Facts

USAID received a clean financial audit opinion for FY2024 — no material weaknesses in internal controls. Independent auditors (Williams Adley & Company-DC LLP, contracted by the USAID OIG) concluded that USAID’s financial statements were “presented fairly in all material respects” in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Two significant deficiencies were identified — in personnel/payroll processes and lease reporting — but no material weaknesses. This is the standard a federal agency is expected to meet, and USAID met it. ¹

The USAID OIG’s own data shows modest fraud relative to the agency’s scale. The OIG’s Semiannual Report to Congress covering October 2024 through March 2025 identified $26.5 million in total monetary benefits: $4.3 million in questioned costs, $4.6 million in funds put to better use, and $17.6 million in investigative monetary results. Against USAID’s FY2024 spending of $21.7 billion, this represents approximately 0.12% — consistent with normal operations of a large federal agency, not evidence of systemic corruption. ²

The “sex changes in Guatemala” claim distorts a $2 million grant to Asociacion Lambda. The grant (USAspending.gov Award ID: ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200) was awarded to Asociacion Lambda, a Guatemalan LGBTQ+ rights organization, to “strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming health care, advocate for improved quality and access to services, and provide economic empowerment opportunities.” Gender-affirming health care encompasses hormone therapy, counseling, mental health services, and speech therapy — not solely or even primarily surgery. Only $350,000 of the $2 million had been disbursed when the program was halted. A former USAID official clarified that “gender-affirming care does not include surgeries, hormone replacement therapies or any other medical interventions” under USAID programs. This single grant represented 0.009% of USAID’s annual spending. ³

The White House’s own fact sheet on USAID waste was overwhelmingly inaccurate. On February 6, 2025, the White House published “At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep,” listing 12 examples of allegedly wasteful spending. Washington Post and CNN fact-checks found only one of the twelve claims was accurate (a $1.5 million Serbia diversity grant). The remaining eleven were either misattributed (grants from the State Department, not USAID), misleadingly described, or lacking essential context. When confronted with the errors, a White House spokesperson did not address them, stating instead that the information “underscores why the president paused foreign aid on day one.” ⁴

The USAID Inspector General was fired one day after releasing a report finding the administration’s own actions degraded oversight. On February 10, 2025, the USAID OIG released an advisory finding that “widespread staffing reductions across the Agency, particularly within BHA, coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAID’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance.” The report noted that approximately 90% of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance’s worldwide workforce had been removed, making it harder to track $8.2 billion in taxpayer-funded aid. Inspector General Paul Martin was fired via email on February 11, 2025 — one day later. ⁵

USAID was effectively dissolved, not reformed. The timeline: January 20, 2025 — executive order froze all foreign aid for 90-day review. January 27 — DOGE entered USAID headquarters. February 1 — DOGE sought access to classified systems without clearances; security officials who refused were placed on leave. February 23 — nearly all 4,700 full-time employees placed on administrative leave, 1,600 positions eliminated. March 28 — State Department formally notified Congress of USAID dissolution. July 1 — USAID officially ceased operations, with a statutory minimum of 15 positions retained. More than 80% of the agency’s thousands of programs were terminated. ⁶

Multiple federal courts found the funding freezes likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that the blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated foreign aid likely violated both federal law and the Constitution, noting the administration “may have significant discretion in how to spend the funds at issue” but does not “have any discretion as to whether to spend the funds.” The Supreme Court initially upheld Ali’s order (5-4, with Roberts and Barrett joining the three liberal justices), but later issued a 5-4 stay in September 2025 allowing the pocket rescission to proceed. Justice Kagan dissented, warning the Court had acted “on a short fuse” with “scant briefing, no oral argument.” ⁷

Peer-reviewed research projects catastrophic consequences from USAID’s dissolution. A June 2025 study in The Lancet — coordinated by ISGlobal, UCLA, Federal University of Bahia, and others — estimated that USAID programs prevented 91 million deaths between 2001 and 2021. Their models project that if the 83% funding cut continues, more than 14 million additional preventable deaths could occur by 2030, including 4.5 million children under five. UNAIDS projects that without PEPFAR reauthorization, there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths — 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths between 2025 and 2029. As of mid-2025, HIV testing was already down 8.5%, diagnosis down 31%, and treatment initiation down 30% compared to Q1 2024. ⁸

Strong Inferences

The “sex changes in Guatemala” example was chosen for maximum inflammatory effect, not as a representative case. Of USAID’s $21.7 billion in annual spending, the administration chose to spotlight a partially disbursed $350,000 grant ($2 million authorized) to a transgender health and empowerment program in Central America — then described it using deliberately misleading language (“sex changes”) designed to trigger cultural grievance. This follows the classic misdirection pattern: use a small, emotionally charged example to discredit an entire institution, avoiding the far harder question of whether the institution’s core mission (disease prevention, disaster relief, food security, democratic governance) had value. The programs actually cut at scale were PEPFAR, malaria prevention, maternal health, and food aid. ⁹

The administration did not “stop” waste, fraud, and abuse — it eliminated the oversight mechanisms that detect them. By firing the Inspector General, placing 90% of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance workforce on leave, and dissolving the agency, the administration removed the very systems that identify and recover misused funds. The OIG’s own February 2025 advisory explicitly warned that staffing reductions made it harder to “distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance.” You cannot claim to have solved a problem by eliminating the capacity to measure it. ¹⁰

The framing as “pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats” inverts the actual power dynamic. USAID’s programs were authorized and funded by Congress through the appropriations process. The “entrenched bureaucrats” were civil servants implementing congressionally mandated programs. The actual unilateral actors were DOGE operatives who entered USAID without security clearances, accessed personnel files, and helped dismantle an agency established by executive order in 1961 and maintained by every subsequent administration for 64 years. ¹¹

What the Evidence Shows

The claim that the administration “stopped waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID” is not supported by any evidence because there is no evidence of systemic waste, fraud, or abuse to have stopped. USAID’s FY2024 financial audit was clean. The OIG identified $26.5 million in issues against $21.7 billion in spending — a rate of 0.12%. The White House’s own list of 12 waste examples was found to be 92% inaccurate. The “sex changes in Guatemala” claim — the specific example chosen for this item — distorts a $350,000 disbursement for a broader health and empowerment program into a surgical caricature that bears little resemblance to the actual grant.

What the administration did was not “stop waste” — it was destroy an agency. USAID, which operated in over 100 countries and administered programs credited by peer-reviewed research with preventing 91 million deaths over two decades, was dissolved in less than six months. More than 10,000 employees lost their jobs. More than 80% of programs were terminated. The Inspector General who flagged oversight concerns was fired the next day. DOGE operatives accessed classified systems and personnel data without clearances. Multiple courts found the funding freezes likely unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court allowed them to proceed only through contested emergency orders.

The consequences are not speculative. HIV testing is already down 31% in affected countries. Treatment initiation is down 30%. Mathematical modelers at Boston University estimate more than 176,000 additional HIV deaths and 62,000 additional TB deaths from the first year of cuts alone. The Lancet projects 14 million additional preventable deaths by 2030 if the cuts hold. One documented death occurred when a USAID-funded clinic in Nigeria closed.

The “taxpayer protection” framing deserves particular scrutiny. USAID’s entire budget was $21.7 billion — roughly 0.3% of federal spending. The administration’s own actions degraded the oversight systems that protected those taxpayer funds. And the pocket rescission of $4.9 billion (item #85) was achieved through a mechanism the GAO considers illegal, multiple Republican senators called unlawful, and a federal judge blocked before the Supreme Court intervened on an emergency, non-merits basis.

The Bottom Line

The claim gets every element wrong. USAID was not characterized by systemic waste, fraud, and abuse — its own independent audit found no material weaknesses, and the OIG’s identified issues amounted to 0.12% of spending. The “sex changes in Guatemala” example is a deliberate distortion of a $350,000 health access grant, chosen not because it was representative but because it was inflammatory. And the administration did not “stop” anything — it destroyed a 64-year-old agency, fired the inspector general who warned the destruction was degrading oversight, and dismissed 10,000 employees implementing congressionally authorized programs. The result, according to peer-reviewed research in The Lancet, may be 14 million additional preventable deaths by 2030 — including 4.5 million children. This is not stopping waste. This is redefining mass death as efficiency.

Footnotes

1. USAID OIG, “Audit of USAID’s Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2023,” December 16, 2024 (oig.usaid.gov/node/7278). Williams Adley & Company-DC LLP (independent auditors). No material weaknesses found; two significant deficiencies in personnel/payroll and lease reporting. ↩

2. USAID OIG, “Semiannual Report to Congress, October 1, 2024 — March 31, 2025,” May 23, 2025 (oig.usaid.gov/node/7694). $26.5 million in total monetary benefits against $21.7 billion in FY2024 spending per USAFacts (usafacts.org/explainers/what-does-the-us-government-do/agency/us-agency-for-international-development/). ↩

3. Snopes, “USAID sent $2M to Guatemala, but not just for gender-affirming health care,” February 6, 2025 (snopes.com/fact-check/usaid-guatemala-gender-affirming-care/). Verdict: “Mixture.” USAspending.gov Award ID: ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200. Only $350,000 of $2 million disbursed. ↩

4. Washington Post / CNN fact-check via Oakland Press, “The White House’s wildly inaccurate claims about USAID spending,” February 7, 2025 (theoaklandpress.com/2025/02/07/the-white-houses-wildly-inaccurate-claims-about-usaid-spending/). Only 1 of 12 claims accurate. White House, “At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep,” February 6, 2025 (whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/at-usaid-waste-and-abuse-runs-deep/). ↩

5. USAID OIG, “Oversight of USAID-Funded Humanitarian Assistance Programming Impacted by Staffing Reductions and Pause on Foreign Assistance,” February 10, 2025 (oig.usaid.gov/node/7439). CNN, “USAID IG fired day after report critical of impacts of Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency,” February 11, 2025 (cnn.com/2025/02/11/politics/usaid-inspector-general-fired-trump). ↩

6. NPR, “USAID officially shuts down and merges remaining operations with State Department,” July 1, 2025 (npr.org/2025/07/01/nx-s1-5451372/usaid-officially-shuts-down); NPR, “Trump to put 4,700 USAID employees on leave, eliminate 1,600 jobs,” February 23, 2025; NBC News, “USAID security leaders removed after refusing Elon Musk’s DOGE employees access to secure systems,” February 2, 2025 (nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/usaid-security-leaders-removed-refusing-elon-musks-doge-employees-acce-rcna190357). ↩

7. SCOTUSblog, “Supreme Court allows Trump administration to withhold billions in foreign-aid funding,” September 26, 2025 (scotusblog.com/2025/09/supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-to-withhold-billions-in-foreign-aid-funding/); Washington Post, “‘Unlawful’ suspension of USAID funding probably violated Constitution, judge says,” March 11, 2025; NPR, “Supreme Court upholds a lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors,” March 5, 2025. ↩

8. The Lancet, “Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030,” June 28, 2025 (thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01186-9/fulltext); UNAIDS, “Impact of US funding cuts on the global HIV response” (unaids.org/en/impact-US-funding-cuts); BU SPH, “Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts,” March 12, 2025 (bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2025/tracking-anticipated-deaths-from-usaid-funding-cuts/); aidsmap, “US funding cuts cause immediate drops in numbers testing and on HIV treatment,” July 2025. ↩

9. The $350,000 disbursement figure from Snopes fact-check; the $21.7 billion annual spending from USAFacts; the description of programs actually cut from NPR, UNAIDS, and The Lancet sources above; Latino USA, “How a White House Lie About ‘Sex Changes’ in Guatemala Helped Decimate USAID,” December 12, 2025 (latinousa.org/2025/12/12/sexchangesusaid/). ↩

10. USAID OIG advisory, February 10, 2025 (see ⁵); IG Paul Martin fired February 11; CBPP, “Trump Administration’s Undercutting of Oversight Hurts Taxpayers and Beneficiaries” (cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/trump-administrations-undercutting-of-oversight-hurts-taxpayers-and). ↩

11. Congress.gov, USAID Congressional Research Service overview (congress.gov/crs-product/IF10261); NBC News on DOGE access to classified systems (see ⁶); Fortune, “Elon Musk’s DOGE gets access to classified USAID info after security chiefs tried to block move,” February 2, 2025. ↩