WH press secretary justifies US aid freeze by suggesting taxpayers were on the hook for Gazan condoms



President Donald Trump ordered a pause in foreign aid on Jan. 20, eliciting backlash from beneficiaries abroad and vested interests at home.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt provided pearl-clutchers with a reality check Tuesday, identifying two damning examples of how tens of millions of American tax dollars were allegedly set to be squandered in distant lands: in one instance on condoms in a terrorist hotbed and in other instance on a scandal-plagued international organization the U.S. is leaving in the dust.

Trump, convinced that the U.S. "foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values," ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid, affording his administration an opportunity to review relevant programs "for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy."

In accordance with Trump's order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative," Tammy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement Sunday. "The secretary is proud to protect America's investment with a deliberate and judicious review of how we spend foreign assistance dollars overseas."

'The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is.'

Following the State Department's announcement, Trump noted during House Republicans' annual retreat Monday in Florida, "We get tired of giving massive amounts of money to countries that hate us, don't we?"

The possibility that the American government might condition foreign aid on whether a given initiative abroad makes the U.S. safer, stronger, and more prosperous rankled various activists and NGOs.

InterAction, the biggest alliance of international aid organizations in the country, condemned the funding freeze, alleging in a statement that it "creates dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill."

"It stops assistance in countries critical to U.S. interests, including Taiwan, Syria, and Pakistan," continued the statement from InterAction. "And, it halts decades of lifesaving work through PEPFAR that helps babies to be born HIV-free."

Abby Maxman, the president and CEO of Oxfam, told ABC News in a statement, "The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is — we know this will have life-or-death consequences for millions around the globe, as programs that depend on this funding grind to a halt without a plan or safety net."

"This decision must be reversed, and funding and programming must be allowed to move forward," added Maxman.

'Everybody rips off the United States.'

A reporter complained during the White House press briefing Tuesday that Trump's freezes and attempted freezes on federal funding were executed with "little notice," putting organizations on the back foot.

After noting in reply that Americans' "tax dollars actually matter this this administration," Leavitt provided examples of why quick action was warranted, noting that the White House budget office and the Department of Government Efficiency found that "there was $37 million that was about to go out the door to the World Health Organization."

Leavitt indicated that it is clear from Trump's executive order withdrawing from the WHO that such funding "wouldn't be in line with the president's agenda."

Trump set the ball rolling on severing all official ties with the WHO via executive order on Jan. 20, stating that the "WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries' assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO."

"World Health ripped us off," said Trump. "Everybody rips off the United States. It's not going to happen any more."

'We are protecting American taxpayers.'

"DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza," Leavitt added Tuesday. "That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money."

Some critics have questioned whether $50 million was actually earmarked for shipping condoms to Gaza, which only has a population of around 2.1 million people. Doubts were fueled in part by reports highlighting that in 2023, USAID allocated $60.8 million in funding for condoms and female contraceptives globally and that none of that funding went to Gaza. Only $45,681 worth of condoms were delivered to the Middle East that fiscal year.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce clarified in an X thread that the blocked funds for contraception were part of $102 million in planned "unjustified funding to a contractor in Gaza."

A Trump administration official confirmed to the Independent on Wednesday that the blocked grants were partly for contraceptives but also for the International Medical Corps, an America-based organization that operates field hospitals in Gaza, to provide "family planning programming including emergency contraception; sexual health care including prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections; and adolescent sexual and reproductive health."

Todd Bernhardt, a spokesman for the IMC, told the Washington Post that "no U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms."

While it's unclear whether taxpayers were actually on the hook for Gazan condoms, Bruce noted that the overall pause in foreign assistance has enabled the State Department to prevent $16 million in funding from going to institutional contractors in gender development offices; $4 million from going to the Center for Climate-Positive Development; $12 million from going to provide support services to the USAID Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security; $6 million from going to fund "administrative support for an already bloated 'Center of Excellence'"; and $600,000 to fund technical assistance for family planning in Latin America.

"We will not allow the bureaucracy to exploit a crisis and waste taxpayer dollars. We are protecting American taxpayers, safeguarding America’s national security, and ensuring actual lifesaving humanitarian aid continues," said Bruce.

Government data shows that the U.S. blew $68 billion on foreign aid in 2023 and had nearly $40 billion in obligations for fiscal year 2024.

According to the United Nations, the U.S. is far and away the biggest global provider of humanitarian aid, accounting for over 42% of funding worldwide last year. The runner-up was the European Union, which collectively accounted for only 8.1% of global funding.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Trump Can Make The Arts Great Again With Appointees Who Love Beauty And Tradition

America’s cultural institutions have become overt ideological battlegrounds, prioritizing politics over art.

Pentagon makes horrifying admission about its funding of Chinese gain-of-function experiments



The year millions of people were killed worldwide by a virus likely engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese scientists in Beijing began toying with a more deadly coronavirus variant called GX_P2V that killed humanized mice 100% of the time, largely with late-stage brain infections. While not formally linked, the study referenced parallel work executed by Wuhan Institute of Virology scientist Dr. Shi Zhengli.

In March, Chinese researchers at the Hebei Medical University revealed they had created a mutant version of the virus vesicular stomaitis, known to infect cattle, by giving it a protein from the Ebola virus. The hamster test subjects infected with the recombinant virus suffered weight loss, ulcerated eyes, inflammation, multi-organ failure, and then all died.

Apparently, the Pentagon has no idea to what extent it has bankrolled these kinds of potentially ruinous experiments in communist China.

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General released a partially redacted report Tuesday detailing the results of its efforts to track down the money the Pentagon has invested helping the communist Chinese enhance deadly pathogens.

The report made clear it was referring to gain-of-function experiments, referencing a definition published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, which states, "The term 'gain-of-function' means 'to enhance a function by genetic manipulation' or 'to add a new function' and applies to much research involving genetic recombination and genetic manipulation."

The DOD Office of Inspector General sought specifically to track the amount of federal funds given either directly or indirectly by the Pentagon to:

  • the communist regime itself;
  • the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other organizations administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences;
  • Peter Daszak's scandal-plagued and debarred EcoHealth Alliance, whose gain-of-function subcontractor was among the likely patients zero;
  • the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences; and
  • any other related lab in the Asian nation.

Of special concern was whether and where funds were spent on "research or experiments that could have reasonably resulted in the enhancement of any coronavirus, influenza, Nipah, Ebola, or other pathogen of pandemic potential or chimeric versions of such a virus or pathogen."

The conclusions of the report were damning.

The Pentagon has admitted that it has no idea to what extent it has funded the creation of deadly viruses in an adversarial nation it has identified as its "top pacing challenge" — a country whose overall biorisk management score is less than stellar.

The report noted at the outset that Army officials had identified 12 relevant research programs and that for "seven awards, a prime awardee provided funds to a subawardee or contracting research organization in China or other foreign countries for research related to potential enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential."

The Inspector General's Office could also account for over $54 million given to EcoHealth Alliance for 13 projects executed from 2014 through 2023 but suggested that none of this funding went to China or its affiliates for gain-of-function research.

After accounting for the top of the Pentagon funding iceberg, the report indicated what lies below the surface is wholly "unknown."

Why is the answer to this question not 'zero dollars'?

Citing "significant challenges in searching for awards" due to "limitations in the DOD's systems used to track contracts and grants," the Inspector General's Office concluded, "The full extent of DOD funds provided to Chinese research laboratories or other foreign countries for research related to enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential is unknown."

The report noted that when it came to funding Chinese gain-of-function experiments, the DOD neither used "a budget line item or any other consistent indicator, such as assistant listing codes, that makes databases of grants, contracts, and other transaction agreements easily searchable or reviewable" nor tracked "funding at the level of detail necessary" to make accurate determinations.

Apparently, the Government Accountability Office reached a comparable conclusion in a 2022 report.

Similarly troubling was the Office of the Inspector General's admission that found it impossible "to identify a single source that encompasses all pathogens of pandemic potential." In other words, the Pentagon does not appear to have an accessible authoritative list detailing just how many deadly diseases it has funded the creation of in China.

Despite the acknowledgement the Pentagon hasn't tracked its spending on the manufacture of killer viruses in China, DOD officials reassured the Inspector General's Office that "DOD organizations did not actively participate in or knowingly fund research or experiments that could have reasonably resulted in the enhancement of pathogens of pandemic potential from 2014 through 2023."

The report was not well received.

Molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University wrote, "Your tax dollars on fire."

Stanford University epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya tweeted, "The Biden DOD has lost track of how much money it has given to Chinese laboratories for 'enhancing' pathogens. Why is the answer to this question not 'zero dollars'?"

"Deadly coverup. Deadly incompetence," wrote Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson. "What's the difference? But this 'I dunno' may as well translate as: we (YOU) paid for the creation of covid."

Blaze News columnist Auron MacIntyre responded, "US agencies can track and censor your social media posts about the pandemic but can't track how much they spent to manufacture it."

"It wasn't the Pangolin," wrote Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. "It was the Pentagon."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Biden admin lifts ban on arming Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception



Despite President Joe Biden's sense that white supremacy is the "most dangerous terrorist threat," his administration is lifting the ban on arming a Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazism since its inception whose current members now reject accusations of extremism.

In June 2015, the U.S. Congress unanimously approved an amendment to the Pentagon budget prohibiting American funds under the Pentagon Appropriations Act from being used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to Ukraine's 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade, then called the Azov Battalion.

Former Michigan Rep. John Conyers (D) told his fellow lawmakers that the "neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia" group founded by Ukrainian politician Andriy Biletsky had been characterized by Foreign Policy as "openly neo-Nazi" and "fascist."

Biletsky, who headed the neo-Nazi groups Social-National Assembly and Patriots of Ukraine, was less than subtle about the nature of his variety of national socialism, having reportedly: criticized "Negro-love" and the "blackening" of Ukraine; reminisced about Adolf Hitler as a military leader; denied the Holocaust ever happened; defended paramilitary Nazi collaborators in his college thesis; and adopted for his militia a symbol closely resembling the Nazi Wolfsangel.

'These groups run counter to American values, and once the fighting ends, they pose a significant threat to the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people.'

Years after his release from prison and months after the Russian invasion in 2022, Biletsky said, "We don't identify ourselves with the Nazi ideology."

"Numerous other news organizations, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press have corroborated the dominance of white supremacist and anti-Semitic views within the group," said Conyers.

"These groups run counter to American values, and once the fighting ends, they pose a significant threat to the Ukrainian Government and the Ukrainian people," continued the Democrat. "As we have seen many times, most notably within the Mujahedin in Afghanistan, these groups will not lay down their arms once the conflict is over. They will turn their arms against their own people in order to enforce their hateful views."

The same year Azov was slapped with an American arms ban, it was absorbed into the Ukrainian National Guard by which time its political and military wings had formally separated.

Although the Pentagon successfully lobbied the House Defense Appropriations Committee to drop the amendment from the following year's defense budget, the amendment returned to appropriations bills in the years since.

The U.S. State Department apparently also prohibited the provision of the Azov Brigade with training or American weapons.

That is all set to change if it has not already.

After years of urging and the publication of Azov commander Denys Prokopenko's demands to American officials in the pages of Ukrainska Pravda, the Biden State Department confirmed to the Washington Post Monday that the Biden administration has cleared the Azov Brigade to receive American weapons.

The Post highlighted that the timing of the announcement comes just as "Kyiv starts the summer fighting season."

"After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the U.S. Department of State," said the State Department.

The "Leahy law," named after former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), concerns two laws prohibiting the U.S. government from using taxpayer dollars to assist foreign militants "where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights (GVHR). One statutory provision applies to the State Department and the other applies to the Department of Defense."

In the case of the Azov Brigade, the Biden administration maintains there is no such evidence of GVHR, contrary to what Russia has alleged on various occasions. Russia's Supreme Court declared the Azov Brigade a terrorist organization in 2022.

'This is a new page in the history of our unit.'

The State Department did not inform the Post whether the ban had been lifted and if weapons had already reached Azov militants, which apparently now have Jewish-Ukrainian soldiers among their ranks.

The Azov Brigade said in a statement, "We are grateful to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Command of the National Guard of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States of America, and everyone who contributed to successfully passing vetting."

"Eligibility for US assistance will not only increase Azov's combat effectiveness, but, most importantly, will help save the lives and health of the brigade's personnel," continued the statement. "This is a new page in the history of our unit. Azov is becoming more professional and more effective in defending Ukraine against the invaders."

The Associated Press reported that current members of the brigade reject the suggestion that they're extremists or linked to "far-right movements."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Why Are Elected Republicans Helping Democrats Reward A Failed Education System?

Republicans are increasing financial support for a broken public education system that is openly hostile to conservative families.

New Spending Bill Prohibits Pride Flag At US Embassies Worldwide

'I think it’s laughable'

The Senate just passed a $95 billion foreign aid package. House Speaker Johnson vows to kill it.



The U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package Tuesday morning in a 70-29 vote after its opponents, who filibustered throughout the night, exhausted their floor time.

Although the bill has cleared the chamber with the help of 18 Republican senators — prompting thanks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — its fate in Congress is anything but certain.

Whereas House Democrats have vowed to exhaust all options to see it pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) indicated he would ensure the legislation won't survive, at least in its current form.

The bill's passage

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested that the foreign aid package serves as a signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that America is committed "to our allies in NATO."

"With this national security bill, the Senate keeps its word to Ukrainians in need of supplies, to innocent Palestinian civilians in need of relief, to Israelis in need of support, and to U.S. service members on patrol in the Indo-Pacific, the Red Sea, and around the world," wrote Schumer.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), chief among the Republicans who championed the legislation, framed the foreign aid as a matter of ensuring that America's allies have the wherewithal to fight so that American soldiers won't have to.

"We haven't equipped the brave people of Ukraine, Israel, or Taiwan with lethal capabilities in order to win philanthropic accolades," said the Senate Republican leader. "We do it because it is in our own interest. We equip our friends to face our shared adversaries so we're less likely to have to spend American lives to defeat them."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who led the unsuccessful speaking filibuster, suggested House Republicans "more conservative than the Republicans in this body" would ultimately kill the bill, which he characterized as a "middle finger to every working man and woman in America, to every struggling family."

A previous version of the bill had a price tag of $118 billion and would have included $20.23 billion for American border security.

Recognizing that it would do little to secure the border — Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) had evenadmitted that the "border never closes" under the proposed scheme — House Republicans underscored the bill would be dead on arrival, prompting he Senate to go back to the drawing board.

The Senate repackaged the foreign aid bill, such that it now allots no additional funds for Department of Homeland Security's border security efforts. It does, however, earmark $60 billion for Ukraine and $14.1 billion for Israel. It also will fund $9.2 billion worth of humanitarian assistance, including to Gaza and the West Bank, and nearly $4.8 billion to American partners in the Indo-Pacific, reported CNN.

According to the Associated Press, the Ukraine-designated funds include $14 billion for the beleaguered nation to rearm itself through the purchase of weapons and munitions; $15 billion for military support services; $1.6 billion for Ukraine's private sector; and $8 billion to fund the Ukrainian government. An additional $480 million is earmarked for Ukrainians displaced by the war.

Of the funds the Senate would like to see directed to Israel, $4 billion would go toward boosting the nation's air defenses; $1.2 billion would bankroll its Iron Beam laser weapons system; and $2.5 billion would support American operations in the region.

Where Taiwan is concerned, the Senate would have it receive $1.9 billion to replenish its stock of weapons and $3.3 billion to build more American submarines.

A death in the House

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) indicated that the package will die a quick death in the House.

Hours ahead of the bill's passage, Johnson noted in a statement, "House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border."

"The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel-Immigration legislation due to its insufficient border provisions, and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe," wrote Johnson. "Instead, the Senate's foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country."

Johnson suggested that House Republicans would have to take matters into their own hands.

"Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters," said Johnson. "America deserves better than the Senate's status quo."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) alternatively vowed to see the bill pass.

"The time has come for Extreme MAGA Republicans and the Pro-Putin Caucus to end the political stunts and come together in a bipartisan manner to support America's national security priorities," Jeffries said in a statement last week.

"House Democrats are prepared to use every available legislative tool to make sure we get comprehensive national security legislation over the finish line," added Jeffries.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Biden Admin Announces $1.5 Billion For Electric Buses

More than 2,900 'low- and zero- emission' electric buses have been funded

Report: Kyrsten Sinema is blowing campaign funds on luxurious living while her re-election chances diminish



There are mounting indications that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's days in the U.S. Senate are numbered. Her major challengers, Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, are grossly out-fundraising her, and she appears less than eager to make the deadline for signature collection. The biggest indicator — beyond her apparent reluctance to announce her re-election bid — comes down to her recent spending habits.

Despite raising a paltry $595,00 in the last quarter, the former Green Party activist and critic of "seeing Washington bureaucrats use their hard-earned tax dollars for personal gain" has been rapidly blowing campaign funds on a luxurious lifestyle involving five-star European hotels, lavish getaways to coastal vineyards, and expensive vehicles.

The New York Post reported that Federal Election Commission filings show Sinema spent $796,565 between Oct. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31 on expenses such as luxury hotels, a brand new car, concert tickets and the security detail that follows her around on her adventures.

Sinema threw down $77,000 on a new Chevrolet described in paperwork as a "van," even though she reportedly already bought a $70,000 "security detail vehicle" for herself two years ago. If she loses a re-election bid or doesn't bother to even try, then she will still get to keep the vehicles, assuming they are licensed to her.

According to the Post, Sinema also spent over $3,000 on limos in London and Paris, ostensibly for personal use.

The Daily Beast indicated that Sinema has ignored her own longstanding criticism of "first class air travel," having spent $210,000 in taxpayer funds on private chartered air travel since 2020.

Sinema reportedly stayed in July and October of last year at the five-star Le Roch Hotel & Spa in Paris, which cost her personal political action committee, the "Getting Stuff Done PAC," $7,600. The PAC also fitted the bill for her $2,500 July stay at Madrid's Edition Hotel, a "luxury lifestyle urban five-star resort," reported the Beast.

Sinema's PAC also paid the senator's way through various wineries in California and Oregon.

The Washington Examiner reported that Sinema has $10.6 million remaining in her coffers and some suspect the senator intends to spend as much of it as she can on her way out.

"Look, I have no direct knowledge, but just her actions and fundraising speaks louder than words – this is not a candidate who is running," an anonymous Sinema ally told the Examiner. "As much as I'd like her to run, and I think the people of Arizona are best represented by her, this is not the way you start one of the most politically challenging campaigns of your career."

When asked about her fundraising earlier this week, Sinema told reporters, "Not talking about that at all."

"Why are you wasting your question on that? I want to be clear to all of you: total waste of a question. I'm here to talk about substance," added Sinema.

FEC rules allow for campaigns to fund a candidate's trips if the trips serve a campaigning or fundraising purpose. The Beast noted that Sinema has in recent years added donor meetings to personal trips so that she wouldn't have to open her wallet when traveling to various marathon and triathlon events. Her latest expenditures might amount to more of the same.

Thomas Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, told the New York Post, "Sen. Sinema's use of campaign funds for seemingly personal expenses raises serious ethical questions. It also raises overall questions regarding the Senator's judgment."

"Particularly disturbing is the campaign's extravagant spending on security even as leftists like Sinema make Americans less safe by attacking police… This is elitist hypocrisy at its worst," added Jones.

Sinema has not yet filed her statement of interest with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office to begin gathering the 42,303 signatures required by April 8 so that she might appear on the ballot.

A recent poll had Sinema trailing Lake and Gallego both by over 25 points.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Mike Johnson Says He Won’t Back Out Of Spending Deal Despite Freedom Caucus Opposition

'Our topline agreement remains'