Associated Press
trump budget director Russell Voight He reportedly diverted millions of dollars from federal agencies that once provided humanitarian and economic aid around the world to pay for his security, Reuters reported.
president Donald Trump The report said Trump disbanded the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shortly after taking office and planned to shut down the agency completely by September because of “claims without providing evidence that the agency was rife with corruption.”
USAID is the primary federal agency focused on global health, disaster relief, and education. A professor at the Harvard School of Public Health estimates that the demolitions “have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition.” USAID was created and continues to be funded by an act of Congress, and the executive branch does not have the constitutional right to unilaterally revoke an act of Congress.
A source told Reuters that Vought allegedly had more than a dozen U.S. Marshals as his bodyguards to protect him from threats stemming from his involvement in Project 2025. The conservative “blueprint” shaped the Trump administration’s policies, including cutting thousands of federal jobs.
reporter Jonathan Landy and Douglas Gillison wrote that they reviewed three documents showing that $15 million in operating expenses from the former USAID had now been transferred to Vought.
According to reports:
A document reviewed by Reuters said the Office of Management and Budget signed an agreement with USAID on September 11 last year “to cover costs related to the security detail of then-USAID Acting Administrator Vaught through November.” The amount – $1.6 million – came from the remainder of USAID’s operating expenses, the document showed.
The Office of Management and Budget budgeted an additional $13.5 million in USAID funding to cover the costs of Vought’s security forces through the end of the year “as they are related to his current role as senior adviser to USAID,” the document said.
Spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget Rachel Cowley “We will continue to use available funds from the three agencies the director oversees to protect him,” Vought told Reuters in an email. Vought is the acting director of the Office of Budget Management and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, serving as a senior adviser to the bureau after just 90 days as administrator of USAID.
In his statement, Cawley accused the “left” of “pursuing a strategy that fosters a ‘culture of assassination of public officials’ and then being ‘shocked by how to keep them safe'”.
Vought did not comment on the report.
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