Trump says USAIDs were 'appalling waste' in federal spending, cites Doge’s list of cuts in Congress address

In a fiery address to Congress, US President Donald Trump took a dig at the USAID initiatives by the previous administration, calling them an “appalling waste” of federal spending. He also cited a list of programmes from the agency which are being cut by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to reduce federal expenditure and expense.

“All of these scams, and they’re far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them,” Trump said. “They’re so bad.”

He stated that many more had been “exposed” by a group of “very intelligent, mostly young people, headed by Elon [Musk].” Trump emphasised that DOGE had found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” which had been reclaimed to reduce debt and fight inflation.

Trump appointed billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the chief of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency to reduce government spending and cut federal expenditure.

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Shoutout to Musk

He also gave a shoutout to Musk in his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

“To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but we’ll be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars,” he said, highlighting his goal for DOGE.

Trump said DOGE is “headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this.”

This is a breaking copy.