{"id":2402466,"date":"2025-02-13T17:07:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T22:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joni-ernst-blasts-usaid-spending-outside-of-american-interests\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T17:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T22:09:24","slug":"joni-ernst-blasts-usaid-spending-outside-of-american-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joni-ernst-blasts-usaid-spending-outside-of-american-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Joni Ernst blasts USAID spending outside of &#8216;American interests&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjoni-ernst-blasts-usaid-spending-outside-of-american-interests%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2402466&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sen. joni\u2064 Ernst (R-IA) criticized the U.S. Agency for \u2064International Development (USAID) for\u200b what she perceives as inappropriate spending, claiming that taxpayer dollars \u2063have been wasted on activities that do not\u200d advance U.S.\u200b interests. In a recent appearance on Fox\u200d News,\u2063 she expressed gratitude towards Elon Musk and the Department of Government\u200d Efficiency for their efforts to highlight such expenditures. Ernst \u2062stated that\u200d her investigations into USAID have \u200bbeen obstructed for\u2062 years, leading her to initiate a formal \u200bcongressional inquiry. She claimed that funds intended for humanitarian aid were instead used for\u200b frivolous activities, such as sending Ukrainians to Fashion Week in Paris, which she argues \u200bdoes not serve the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/taxpayers-funding-immigrant-trips-north-envelopes-of-cash-for-whatever-they-want\/\" title=\"Taxpayers finance immigrant journeys north, cash provided for their discretion\">american taxpayers&#8217; interests<\/a>. Ernst also mentioned\u2062 that recent \u200dfederal shutdowns have led to concerns about the agency&#8217;s future, as leadership within USAID is being restructured under the State Department.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Joni Ernst blasts USAID spending outside of &lsquo;American interests&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1992368\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joni-ernst\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Joni Ernst<\/a> (R-IA) credited the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/department-of-government-efficiency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Department of Government Efficiency<\/a> for uncovering the spending at the <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/usaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">U.S. Agency for International Development<\/a> that she &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-refused-to-pass-cancer-bill-until-they-could-leverage-it\/\" title=\"Dems Refused To Pass Cancer Bill Until They Could Leverage It\">spent years&#038;rdquo<\/a>; investigating.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Ernst is the founder and chairwoman of the Senate DOGE caucus. <span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Long before Elon Musk became DOGE head, Ernst had a &ldquo;Make &lsquo;Em Squeal&rdquo; campaign, which had a mission to &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newt-gingrich-why-joe-odea-can-beat-sen-michael-bennet-in-colorado\/\" title=\"Newt Gingrich: Why Joe O\u2019Dea Can Beat .... Michael Bennet in Colorado\">cut wasteful spending<\/a>,&rdquo; according to her<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ernst.senate.gov\/priorities\/make-em-squeal\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;website<\/a>.<\/span> The senator appeared on Fox News&rsquo;s <em>The Faulkner Focus<\/em> on Thursday to thank Musk for his work to &ldquo;make sure that their&nbsp;taxpayer dollars are being spent&nbsp;wisely and furthering American&nbsp;interests.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I have spent years trying&nbsp;to uncover the spending in USAID,&nbsp;and they obstructed my efforts.&nbsp;So much so that we had to start a formal&nbsp;congressional investigation on&nbsp;USAID.&nbsp;I have been engaged in my squeal&nbsp;efforts for a decade now&nbsp;uncovering waste in our federal&nbsp;government,&rdquo; Ernst said.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 640px; max-height: 360px; min-width: 320px; min-height: 180px; overflow: hidden;\">\n<div style=\"position: relative; width: 100%; padding-top: 56.25%;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/share.grabien.com\/share.php?id=2800770&amp;userid=11311&amp;loginid=10455&amp;playercolor=%23000000&amp;playersize=auto&amp;code=3d98bd691d939ff52de4ea44c5d79d2f\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0px;\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&ldquo;So things like humanitarian aid, when you asked USAID, it equated&nbsp;to sending Ukrainians to Paris&nbsp;Fashion Week.&nbsp;I&rsquo;m sorry, that&rsquo;s not&nbsp;humanitarian aid. It did not&nbsp;benefit the people of Ukraine.&nbsp;So there are a lot of things&nbsp;that we have spent hard-earned&nbsp;taxpayer dollars on that really&nbsp;don&rsquo;t amount to American&nbsp;interests.&nbsp;And so we&rsquo;ve got to rein that&nbsp;back in,&rdquo; Ernst continued.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ernst&rsquo;s comments came as Musk shut down&nbsp;USAID&rsquo;s&nbsp;headquarters last week. They will remain closed until further notice. Hundreds of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">federal workers received word<\/a> to stay home, stoking fears of what agencies are facing shutdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/3308776\/marco-rubio-acting-administrator-usaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">acting&nbsp;USAID&nbsp;administrator<\/a>, explained he is working to configure how to &ldquo;absorb certain bureaus, offices, and missions&rdquo; of the agency into the State Department and other branches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1992368\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1992368\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joni Ernst criticizes USAID spending not aligned with U.S. interests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2631,"featured_media":2402467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joni-Ernst-December-2024-scaled-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[32412,33027,16381],"class_list":["post-2402466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-government-spending","tag-joni-ernst","tag-usaid"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Joni-Ernst-December-2024-scaled-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402470,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402466\/revisions\/2402470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}