Trump's administration fired 2,000 USAID staff amid claims of misdirected funds, sparking India's rebuttal.
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00:00More news coming in, Trump's big crackdown on USAID, 2,000 people have been sacked.
00:11The president has fired employers of the USAID, Trump to eliminate 1,600 USAID jobs in the
00:17U.S.
00:18Trump places thousands of USAID staff on leave.
00:22The Trump administration to eliminate these jobs in the U.S.
00:26The administration says and notices that is firing 2,000 workers and placing thousands
00:31of others on leave is what the AP has reported now.
00:35Shashank Mattu getting in more details on that point on that big story.
00:41Shashank, this was but inevitable given the kind of noise that was made around USAID in
00:46the prime in the precedents, you know, sheer dislike for the organization and for the kind
00:51of work that it had done that Trump had very, very vocally, you know, criticized, isn't
01:02it?
01:05We'll connect with Shashank Mattu in a moment from now, but this is a big crackdown on USAID.
01:09Donald Trump has spoken about the fact that the organization did work which was to harm
01:14in fact the interest of the people of America, including providing funds to countries like
01:19India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
01:22Now 2,000 employees of USAID are getting fired by Donald Trump.
01:27Shashank Mattu is back with us.
01:29Shashank, this was but expected given the president's disdain for the organization.
01:33No, you're absolutely right.
01:35Look, USAID by many accounts is the world's largest humanitarian aid agency, dispensed
01:40around $44 billion in humanitarian aid last year.
01:44But the Trump administration has been very clear about its dislike for the agency and
01:48what it represents.
01:50It believes that countries around the world are taking advantage of America.
01:52America gives and gives and gives, but gets very little back in return.
01:55They would much rather invest that foreign aid in the United States into domestic priorities
02:02and not engage as much internationally.
02:04There have been serious concerns about USAID, what its activities have been in foreign countries
02:10as has been seen in the recent controversy in India around voter turnout funding.
02:16But regardless of that, many analysts have also pointed out that the destination of USAID
02:20also opens up a door for China to go into very strategic and sensitive parts of the
02:24world and fill up the gap that America is leaving behind and meeting the needs of a
02:28lot of developing nations that need USAID funding.
02:31So while America has been very, very clear that it wants to turn more inward, deploy
02:37more of that money domestically, it may also turn out to be something that is damaging
02:42for its foreign policy long term.
02:43So at this point in time, we'll have to see how the story develops.
02:45That's right.
02:46Shashank, getting in those details.
02:47As far as that big development is concerned, Trump placing thousands of USAID staff on
02:52leave and firing many of them.
02:53We have more news coming in.
02:55As far as the USAID is concerned, essentially, Finance Ministry has said no U.S. voter turnout
03:02funds amid raging political controversy over USAID's alleged role influencing Indian elections.
03:08The latest annual report of the Finance Ministry has said the agency funded seven projects
03:14worth $750 million in 2023-2024.
03:19During the year, no funding was made for enhancing voter turnout but to projects related to agriculture
03:24and food security program, water, sanitation and hygiene, renewable energy, disaster management
03:31and health.
03:32External Affairs Minister S.J.
03:33Shankar on Saturday said the information put out by the Trump administration is concerning
03:38and that the government is looking into it.
03:41I'm going back to Shashank for more on that.
03:43Shashank, what does this technically mean?
03:46That the USAID funding was done to government organizations, to government initiatives in
03:502023-2024 and in that sense, this political dispensation, this government has got some
03:57answering to do, isn't it?
03:59Well, absolutely.
04:00In many cases, this is what has been, these are the questions that have been raised from
04:03the very beginning about this USAID controversy.
04:07When it came up, which is that look, USAID has provided around $3 billion in funding
04:11to governments across political dispensations for the last 25 years.
04:17And it's also very clear that India and the Indian government is very careful about allowing
04:21foreign organizations to come into India and fund activities that are related to India's
04:26democratic process.
04:27It's very, very sensitive about those sorts of investments in Indian politics.
04:31It doesn't want any political interference.
04:33And so, the question had always stuck around as to how, as Donald Trump alleged, $21 million
04:38is being used for voter turnout in India when India's government is itself very vigilant
04:41about something like this and that USAID has been an established partner for ministries
04:45across the board.
04:46Regardless, the idea was that various ministries would launch a review, look at their partnerships
04:51with USAID and see where something has come up because if the President of the United
04:55States is making an accusation, you had better take it seriously.
04:58So everyone has looked into their respective records.
05:01Now, this is coming out from the finance ministry that there is no record of anything
05:04like voter turnout being funded by the United States government.
05:08We're also likely to see other ministries carry out reviews and find out whether there
05:12was in fact any exposure or any funding for any project that might resemble something
05:16like this.
05:17But there have already been questions being raised about whether Donald Trump was in fact
05:20mistaken, whether the money was in fact sent to Bangladesh and not to India.
05:23So these are open questions at this point in time, but regardless, the government is
05:26taking it seriously.
05:27It is saying that the USAID was allowed here in good faith.
05:30They have funded projects in good faith.
05:32But if they engage in bad faith activities, we're going to be launching a review to see
05:35what happens.
05:36But so far, as the finance ministry report indicates that there is no indication just
05:39yet that this $21 million was actually given for voter turnout.
05:42But other ministries are launching their reviews as well, and we should have more clarity on
05:45that moving forward.
05:46All right, this was not for voter turnout last year, but for other things like spending
05:51on hygiene, spending on other initiatives of the government like water, for example,
05:56and development.
05:57We'll leave it at that for the moment, Trashank, as that story, as those revelations continue
06:01to play out domestically back home here in the country between the BJP and the Congress.