The show is styled like the American kids' show "Sesame Street," pictured here, and was granted funding that began in 2021 and runs until 2027, according to an archived USAID website (Getty Images)
The show is styled like the American kids' show "Sesame Street," and was granted funding that began in 2021 and runs until 2027, according to the achieved website. The show continues to air in the Middle East, a review of its website shows.
In another example Ernst highlighted, USAID was found to have provided millions of dollars to farmers in Afghanistan in an effort to get them to grow food instead of poppy fields and opium.
The plan, however, backfired and led to an increase in poppy production, and thus opium production, during the war in Afghanistan.
"During the height of the war in Afghanistan, USAID spent millions of dollars to help Afghans grow crops instead of opium," Ernst posted to X Monday. "The results: opium poppy cultivation across the country nearly doubled, according to the UN."
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USAID, as well as the U.S. military, paid farmers to build or rehab miles of irrigation canals in the Helmand province, Afghanistan, during the Obama administration in an effort to persuade the farmers to grow fruits and other plants, the Washington Post reported in 2019. The farmers, however, used the canals to grow poppies.
Morocco has for thousands of years created pottery, dating back to 6,000 B.C. (Jorge Fernández/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The American pottery instructor hired to teach local artists, however, was unable to communicate with them as a translator for the program was "not fluent in English," according to the waste book.
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"An American pottery instructor was contracted to provide several weeks of training classes to local artists to improve their methods and teach them how to successfully make pottery that could be brought to market," the waste book reported. "Unfortunately, the translator hired for the sessions was not fluent in English and was unable to transmit large portions of the lectures to the participants."
October 2024 Fashion Week in Paris. (Kristy Sparow/WireImage)
"USAID spends money like it’s going out of fashion, literally," she wrote. "Trade assistance to Ukraine paid for models and designers to take trips to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and South by Southwest in Austin."
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The Trump administration and DOGE, which is led by Musk, put USAID in its line of fire over the weekend, as DOGE continues tearing through government agencies to strip them of reported overspending and corruption.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that he is now the acting director of USAID, and told the media on Monday that the agency needs to be brought in line with Trump's "America First" policies, which include heightened scrutiny over the distribution of taxpayer funds overseas.
Elon Musk, the chair of DOGE, has been leading an investigation into USAID's spending practices as the agency comes to a standstill. (Getty Images)
Musk has meanwhile slammed the agency as a "viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America," and reported in an audio-only message on X overnight on Sunday that "we’re in the process" of "shutting down USAID" and that Trump reportedly agreed to shutter the agency.
Democrats have slammed the Trump administration's efforts on USAID. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., accused Trump of starting a dictatorship while she protested outside USAID headquarters on Monday.
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"It is a really, really sad day in America. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis," Omar said. "We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one. And here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like when you gut the Constitution, and you install yourself as the sole power. That is how dictators are made."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sesame-street-iraq-usaids-wasteful-dangerous-spending-exposed-senator