USAID IG Firing Shows Trump’s Ideological Extremism, Advance of Authoritarianism
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration has fired Paul Martin, inspector general of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), merely a day after Martin’s office warned of the dangers posed by the administration’s dismantling of the agency.
In response, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement:
“An administration that was actually trying to reduce fraud and increase efficiency would welcome scrutiny from independent evaluators. But the Trump-Musk administration’s crusade has nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with destruction, ideological extremism and the advance of authoritarianism.
“So it comes as little surprise that when the USAID Inspector General warns that Trump-Musk havoc at the agency has left billions of dollars in funds with no oversight, potentially susceptible to diversion to terrorists, and, most importantly, undermined the agency’s humanitarian mission, the administration responds by firing the Inspector General.
“Trump-Musk can fire the Inspector General, but that doesn’t make the reality go away: This administration is perpetrating a humanitarian disaster and, at the same time, increasing the waste, fraud and inefficiency it alleges it is combatting.”