The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has recently become the target of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and spending, bringing increased scrutiny to the record of Samantha Power, the agency’s administrator during almost the entire Biden administration.
Power, who previously served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 in the Obama administration after serving on his National Security Council, took the reins of USAID in the early days of the Biden administration and was tasked with overseeing the tens of billions of dollars budgeted for foreign aid.
‘One of the most pressing challenges facing our nation is restoring and strengthening America’s global leadership as a champion of democracy, human rights, and the dignity of all people,’ then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in a statement at the time of Power’s appointment. ‘Few Americans are better equipped to help lead that work than Ambassador Samantha Power.’
Power was directly involved in the Obama administration’s surveillance of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and sought to obtain Michael Flynn’s redacted identity using an ‘unmasking’ request on at least seven occasions, Fox News Digital previously reported, despite testifying under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that she had ‘no recollection’ of ever making such a request even once.
Fox News reported in 2017 that Power was ‘unmasking’ at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016, and she even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, according to multiple sources close to the matter.
Power’s tenure at USAID was also not without controversy, even from her own party, including an incident in which she faced a public revolt from current and former staff in 2024 over her support of Israel.
Critics also took issue with her repeatedly meeting with influential liberal foundations while serving in her role at USAID, which Fox News Digital reported in 2023, included George Soros’ Open Society Foundations at least two times, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at least five times, and meetings with several other powerful groups like Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
Power’s supporters say she has played a critical role in providing U.S. assistance to war-torn areas like Ukraine and Gaza along with aiding the relief of humanitarian crises that have developed in places like Haiti, Armenia and Sudan.
‘The best testament to USAID’s contribution is the surge in PRC-backed and Russian-backed propaganda maligning USAID and our work around the world,’ Power said in an exit interview with Politico last month. ‘And it’s really picked up a lot over the last year and a half. We counted 81 malicious and false propaganda campaigns, really dedicated campaigns, aimed at denigrating USAID and our reputation. So we’re doing something that is getting on their nerves.’
Power, who is married to former Obama administration official and professor Cass Sunstein, added, ‘We are an agency that has thousands of people around the world representing the United States, both because it’s in the interests of the American people to have health systems that are more secure and can spot infectious diseases and tackle them, to change regulations so it’s easier for American businesses to invest, but also to show up and to show the importance of investing in the partnership — and not investing in a manner that just leaves countries saddled with debt.’
USAID has been increasingly questioned by Republicans over its alleged funding of research relating to the coronavirus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, as well as millions in aid that supports LGBT rights abroad and dozens of millions of dollars for migrant crises in other countries, like the nearly $45 million slated to provide emergency food assistance and economic support for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.
Democrats counter that the agency plays a vital role in U.S. national security interests and say it should remain independent. They point to the work USAID did to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War, a sphere of influence that could remain a concern amid China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Tech billionaire and DOGE Chair Elon Musk has been on a warpath against USAID, which is an independent U.S. agency that was established under the Kennedy administration to administer economic aid to foreign nations, as he leads DOGE’s mission of cutting government fat and overspending at the federal level.
Musk announced in an audio-only message on X over the weekend that ‘we’re in the process’ of ‘shutting down USAID.’
‘On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,’ USAID’s website currently says. ‘Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).’
A Fox News Digital review of USAID’s recent history shows that it has repeatedly been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Trump’s second administration, with spending that took place under Power’s reign likely to continue to be a focus of conversation with Republicans.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to Power in October 2024, sounding the alarm on the ‘likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023,’ Fox Digital reported at the time.
A Syrian national named Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, was charged in November 2024 for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front. The Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, is a designated terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, according to the State Department.
The Government Accountability Office published a report in 2023 finding that both USAID and the National Institutes of Health directed taxpayer funds to American universities and a nonprofit organization before the money found its way to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Eight auditors and employees for the USAID inspector general’s office sounded the alarm to the Washington Post in 2014 that negative findings surrounding the agency’s work were removed from final reports and audits.
Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the nation’s foreign aid budget for USAID and the State Department during his first administration, including proposing in his first year in office to slash the budgets by 37%, which Congress rejected.
‘With $20 trillion in debt, the government must learn to tighten its belt,’ Trump said in 2017 while advocating for the cuts.
Power sat down with late-night host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night and defended USAID’s work and warned against shutting it down, claiming that children overseas in line for tuberculosis treatment were told to go home as a result of Trump’s executive order.
‘Programs that were running, the people we’re depending on, in some cases, for life-saving medicine, like medicine, if you have HIV, that keeps you alive, quite literally,’ Power told Colbert. ‘Or if you’re in Sudan and you have a child who’s wasting away because of malnutrition, a miracle paste, a peanut paste that USAID provides brings that kid back from the brink of death. All of those programs are shuttered.’
Democrat lawmakers took part in a rally against DOGE on Tuesday outside the Treasury Department, arguing that Musk’s actions are unconstitutional and a threat to Democracy.
‘My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me, ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’’ veteran strategist David Axelrod, who served with Power in the Obama administration, said this week. ‘When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid.’
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall, Emma Colton and Gregg Re contributed to this report