A Washington, D.C., judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump&#8217;s control of the African Development Foundation, a small federal agency that locked its doors to prevent Trump&#8217;s staff from entering and had to be physically taken over by U.S. Marshals.
The suit was brought by Ward Brehm, a former member of the agency&#8217;s board of directors, which is appointed by the president. On February 24, the White House notified Brehm that he was fired. But Brehm later insisted he was not just on the board, but had become president of the agency — not Pete Marocco, the architect of the USAID demolition, who Trump also named as president of the similar African aid group.
Senior Judge Richard J. Leon <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118.41.0_1.pdf">ruled</a> that Brehm &#8220;never lawfully held the position, and the Court is not at liberty to unilaterally install him as president. The Court therefore finds that summary judgment is warranted for the defendants.&#8221;
&#8220;The &#8216;President may remove anyone he appoints,&#8217; unless Congress &#8216;wishes to restrict the President&#8217;s removal power,&#8217; which it &#8216;must make clear in a statute,'&#8221; he wrote, citing precedent.
The White House removed all five board members on the same day, but ADF staff would not share contact info for the board members with Trump staff, and notifications to members besides Brehm were sent to invalid email addresses.
On February 28, the White House wrote to the African Development Foundation&#8217;s Chief Financial Officer, Mathieu Zahiu, that the agency had become &#8220;Board-less&#8221; and Trump had temporarily appointed Marocco as acting chair.
Zahui consulted with the fired board members, then told the White House that agency staff would not recognize Marocco as their boss because &#8220;a board nomination requires Senate confirmation.&#8221;
On March 3, the old board held a meeting that purported to appoint Brehm as the chair. They notified Congress that they had seen the February 28 email, but that Brehm was the new president.
Marocco then held a board meeting with only himself and terminated Brehm. &#8220;Since then, both Brehm and Marocco claim to be USADF&#8217;s president,&#8221; the judge wrote.
Judge Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Brehm could not be president of the agency because he had been fired from the board before it supposedly elected him president. Even the other board members, whose emailed termination notices were bungled, knew they had been fired, he said.
&#8220;President Trump removed the board prior to Brehm&#8217;s appointment, and thus Brehm was not lawfully appointed! Brehm&#8217;s removal claims must therefore fail.&#8221;
He noted that chief financial officer Zahui consulted with the previous board members before refusing the accept the White House&#8217;s appointee, and that &#8220;Zahui effectively notified the Board members of their terminations.&#8221;
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why">Daily Wire investigation</a> found that, according to the USAID Inspector General, Zahui received secret payments to his personal bank account after improperly steering contracts to a friend. One of the contracts was for travel during COVID, when no one was traveling. A search warrant was executed on Zahui&#8217;s phone in November, but as of now, he has not been criminally charged.
The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigation found that the African Development Foundation affirmed many of the fears that critics expressed about USAID, particularly that money advertised as going to poor people in third-world countries was being rerouted to D.C. bureaucrats and their friends.
The African Development Foundation sent &#8220;grants&#8221; to African groups on the condition that they send part of the money to American groups affiliated with agency officials and even wire money directly to the personal bank accounts of Foundation employees in Washington, the investigation found.
By law, the group is only permitted to give aid to African groups, and the maneuvering allowed Congress to think it was a low-overhead charity sending the bulk of its money to Africans, when in reality, it was essentially cooking the books.
“The grant was provided to an African organization … a grant can pay for people,” Zahiu told the Daily Wire about one instance of the agency forcing an African group to use part of its grant to pay the salaries of D.C. staff. “Yeah, granted, they were in D.C.” He also said that after DOGE changed the office&#8217;s locks, he gained access through a back door.
One longtime employee said the agency&#8217;s staff locked DOGE out because “the contracts don’t make sense, and they know [DOGE] will find lots of wrongdoing and illegal activity.”
“I’m not a fan of DOGE, but some of the things they’re doing need to be done. They have been operating like this for years, and no one did anything about it,” she said.
Another employee, program manager Kate Ristroph, explained in a videotaped internal investigative interview obtained by The Daily Wire how an agency official gave a grant to an African group on the condition that it route some of the money to his former employer in D.C. “We’re in that murky territory of like, is this legal?” she said.
Mateo Dunne, the agency&#8217;s former lawyer, said he was summarily removed from his job by CEO Travis Adkins after sounding the alarm about lawbreaking.
One piece of misconduct he raised involved one of the now-fired board members, John Agwunobi.
Agwunobi was the CEO of Herbalife, a company accused of being a pyramid scheme, and used the federal agency to push the multi-level marketing firm in Africa months after it paid a $122 million settlement to the Department of Justice to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ADF misrepresented the partnership as being with a nonprofit when it was actually with the for-profit company, and connected Africans with the company&#8217;s reps, he said.
Adkins also bragged about concealing operations from Brehm and other board members, saying “them white motherf***ers, they don’t need to know … I don’t think I should tell them s***,” his former assistant told The Daily Wire.
The assistant, who is black, said in a sworn affidavit that “On at least three occasions, Mr. Adkins told me that he wanted his entire team (to include the General Counsel) to consist only of Black people. He wanted all of his direct reports to be Black.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-foreign-aid-agency-locked-its-doors-to-keep-doge-out-now-we-know-why">This Foreign Aid Agency Locked Its Doors To Keep DOGE Out. Now We Know Why.</a>

African Development Foundation locked the doors when DOGE tried to gain access

D.C. Judge Sides With Trump In Lawsuit Over Control Of Corrupt Foreign Aid Agency

Courts

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Donald Trump

USAID

WASHINGTON—The State Department is destroying $13 million worth of contraceptives, The Daily Wire has learned, in addition to saving nearly $31 million by canceling contraceptive orders placed by President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration.
The contraceptives — including everything from hormonal birth control pills to birth control implants — were set to be distributed abroad through the U.S. Agency for International Development. But the State Department now says the Biden administration purchased much of these contraceptives in violation of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which prevents U.S. funds from going to organizations that support or participate in programs of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
There were some interested buyers, a State Department official said, but they were deemed ineligible since they support organizations involved in coercive abortion and sterilization. Those buyers reportedly included the Gates Foundation, the Children&#8217;s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and the United Nations Population Fund. None of these organizations immediately responded to requests for comment.
A State Department official noted that it would cost the department several million dollars to sell the materials to other vendors, given that the department would have to rebrand some of these materials. Destroying the contraceptives, meanwhile, would cost taxpayers around $167,000, the official said. Doing so also avoids potential further violations of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment and ensures the materials don&#8217;t fall into the wrong hands — something that has happened before with USAID, according to the State Department.
The move is part of President Donald Trump&#8217;s January 2025 presidential directive that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/memorandum-for-the-secretary-of-state-the-secretary-of-defense-the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-the-administrator-of-the-united-states-for-international-development/">stops support</a> for organizations that are involved in coercive reproductive practices, according to a State Department memo shared with The Daily Wire. It is the Trump administration&#8217;s latest effort to curtail USAID, a once-sprawling operation that has been radically reined in and placed firmly under the auspices of the State Department.
An inventory of USAID-Funded Contraceptive Commodities held at a distribution center in Belgium shows that USAID had formerly funded millions of dollars&#8217; worth of birth control implants (including $3,850,540 for levonorgestrel rod implants and over $3,500,000 for etonogestrel rod implants).
USAID was also funding hundreds of thousands of dollars&#8217; worth of birth control pills, hormones, and IUDs, according to data reviewed by The Daily Wire.
The Belgian distribution center, Belgium RDC, was holding a total of $9,734,251 contraceptive commodities, and $3.4 million in commodities are still being held by its supplier, according to the State Department memo.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies on the 2026 Budget In House Hearing

EXCLUSIVE: State Department To Destroy $13 Million In Biden Era Contraceptives

Abortion

Contraception

The most radical thing Washington can do right now is stop spending. President Trump’s proposed $9.4 billion rescissions package won’t accomplish that on its own, but it at least, finally, moves us in the right direction.
For decades, members of both parties have treated spending growth as a measure of success. The assumption has been that government must grow, and that any program, once funded, must be permanent. That mindset has left us with a bloated federal bureaucracy that has replaced free-market policy and individual freedom with centralized control and pushed the country to <a href="https://www.usdebtclock.org/">nearly $37 trillion in debt</a>.
Still, most sitting lawmakers have never voted to cut a single dollar of federal spending. This package gives them that chance. More than that, it gives them an opening to start restoring the habits of a functioning legislature.
It’s also the first time the Department of Government Efficiency has had its work put into legislative form. Elon Musk built and led DOGE under the simple premise to stop wasting taxpayer money. Musk has since returned to the private sector, but he and the president have made clear that the mission remains. The rescissions package, which would codify spending cuts proposed by DOGE, reflects that mission. It targets corrupt USAID programs, taxpayer subsidies for ideologically biased public broadcasters NPR and PBS, and other programs that fail even a basic test of necessity in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/02/us/trump-budget-2026">$1.7 trillion discretionary budget</a>.
Fiscal conservatives, especially those complaining this package doesn’t go far enough, should not let the perfect be the enemy of the essential. Fiscal discipline, like any discipline, requires a starting point. You don’t run a marathon by starting with 20 miles, you start with one. This bill is that first mile.
Congress should treat it as such: start small, bank the win, and keep cutting wherever the rules allow. That means more rescissions, which require only a simple majority to pass. It also means using the appropriations process and, when necessary, continuing resolutions, to keep pushing the issue. Not every tool requires a supermajority, but even the ones that do are worth using to force the debate. Progress in this fight can come steadily if congressional Republicans stay united and focused.
It also means that if passed, this package should be the first of a longer series of cuts. Each one can go further, targeting programs that stray from constitutional purpose or national interest. Repetition in this case can build momentum and credibility.
It can also build legislative muscle memory. Too many lawmakers now assume the only way forward is through bipartisan overspending. A successful rescission would challenge that assumption. It would remind Congress that not every federal dollar is sacred and that cutting even a fraction of the budget is still possible with political will.
Moreover, follow-through matters just as much as passage. House and Senate Republicans must ensure these cuts aren’t restored elsewhere. Cuts that DOGE has made or proposed shouldn’t be backfilled through continuing resolutions or omnibus bills, especially those that are widely popular across America. What gets cut should stay cut. The goal is a permanent shift in direction.
DOGE’s broader purpose has always been to realign government toward greater efficiency and accountability. That vision reflects a basic expectation of public service – that government should function effectively, that leaders should make responsible decisions rather than defer them, and that taxpayers should have confidence their money is being used with care, not lost to inefficiency or corruption.
Congressional Republicans should also keep in mind that a win here sets the tone for the 2026 midterm elections. It signals that the Trump administration’s second-term agenda, as well as the party’s broader movement, is not just about executive action but real, legislative reform. Therefore, they should view these cuts not as the finish line, but as the starting point.
The stakes are about whether the federal government serves the American people or the other way around; whether Congress retains the capacity to exercise restraint, or whether inertia has become the default; and whether a new generation of lawmakers can relearn the forgotten skill of saying no.
This rescissions bill offers the chance to begin answering those questions. Conservatives should take it, and then keep going.
* * *
Paul Teller is the Executive Vice President of Advancing American Freedom.
John Shelton is a policy director for Advancing American Freedom. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Thune Aims Vote On Tax Bill In Last Week Of June

Why The First Spending Cut Is Worth Making

Congress

DOGE

Elon Musk

National Debt

Opinion

President Trump

Republicans

Spending Bill

Taxes

U.S. House of Representatives

President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration submitted its first rescissions package of the year to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced on Tuesday, accompanied by a list of instances of &#8220;waste, fraud, and abuse&#8221; singled out for the chopping block.
In a thread <a href="https://x.com/WHOMB/status/1929991228449312979" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X, OMB said lawmakers in the House and Senate &#8220;must act&#8221; on the request to claw back billions of dollars in &#8220;wasteful foreign aid and federal funding for NPR and PBS&#8221; previously appropriated by Congress, with &#8220;45 days to codify these massive cuts to woke, wasteful, and weaponized spending via a simple majority vote&#8221; using the Impoundment Control Act.
OMB specifically highlighted $67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar, $33,000 for “Being LGBTI in the Caribbean,&#8221; $643,000 for &#8220;LGBTQI+&#8221; programs in the Western Balkans, and $567,000 for &#8220;LBGTQI+&#8221; programs in Uganda.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
$67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar. <a href="https://t.co/ehLzMuIkkr">pic.twitter.com/ehLzMuIkkr</a>
— Office of Management and Budget (@WHOMB) <a href="https://twitter.com/WHOMB/status/1929991230567457260?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Scores of DEI and Global Green New Deal funding&#8221; projects were also mentioned, including: $5 million for the &#8220;Minority Serving Institute Fellowship Cooperative Agreement,&#8221; $595,400 for training women in gender equity, $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, $6 million for “net zero cities” in Mexico, $2.1 million for climate resilience in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa, as well as $5 million for “green transportation and logistics” in Eurasia.
OMB&#8217;s list went on to mention $4 million for “legume systems research&#8221; and $3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday&amp;_gl=1*1qdq03s*_gcl_au*MTYyNDg0MTE0OS4xNzQxODk4NTMz*_ga*MTEzOTk1NjkxNi4xNzI2MzI1MDQz*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*czE3NDgzNzg2NDgkbzEwMDMkZzEkdDE3NDgzODEwMTckajU4JGwwJGgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
In addition, OMB noted millions under the PEPFAR account for so-called LGBTQIA+ programs, condoms, and vasectomies: $833,000 for &#8220;transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks&#8221; in Nepal, $5.1 million for &#8220;resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans gender, intersex, and queer global movements,&#8221; $3 million for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia, $1 billion in contributions to &#8220;wasteful, corrupt, and anti-American international organizations,&#8221; including $135 million to the World Health Organization, and $1.1 billion for the &#8220;left-wing&#8221; Corporation for Public Broadcasting, &#8220;which uses your taxpayer dollars to fund PBS and NPR.&#8221;
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed receipt of the rescissions package, which his office said focuses on $9.4 billion in &#8220;wasteful spending&#8221; identified by the Trump administration&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. He also gave a shoutout to Elon Musk, who earlier had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-cant-stand-it-anymore-goes-nuclear-on-big-beautiful-bill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assailed</a> the lawmakers who voted to pass the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; last month, citing the &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; debt.
&#8220;The House will act quickly on this request,&#8221; Johnson said in a statement. &#8220;Under President Trump, every federal taxpayer dollar is actually being used to serve the American people, not to fund a bloated bureaucracy or purely partisan pet projects. We thank Elon Musk and his DOGE team for identifying a wide range of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs, and House Republicans are eager to eliminate them.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;This rescissions package reflects many of DOGE’s findings and is one of the many legislative tools Republicans are using to restore fiscal sanity. Congress will continue working closely with the White House to codify these recommendations, and the House will bring the package to the floor as quickly as possible.&#8221;
Johnson also took a shot at Democrats, who have largely opposed anything Trump supports, including DOGE.
“Democrats continue to wail and complain — NOT at the fraud, waste, and abuse — but at the Trump Administration simply for exposing it,&#8221; the speaker declared. &#8220;In fact, Democrats are the only ones in Washington who do not want to stop the egregious misspending of the people’s tax dollars. Democrats continue to defend corruption, while Republicans are delivering real accountability and real savings the American people demanded in November.&#8221;
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the spending cuts request.
&#8220;The reckless rescissions package introduced today is only the latest attempt by the Trump administration to attack the free press, decimate lifesaving humanitarian aid and hurt our national security,&#8221; Jeffries said in a statement. &#8220;House Democrats will continue to aggressively push back on the continued chaos, cruelty and corruption of this administration and on the far-right extremism being unleashed on the American people.&#8221;

DEI, Insect Powder, And Trans ‘Resilience’: Trump Unveils ‘Woke’ Spending Cuts Request

Budget

Mike Johnson

National Public Radio (NPR)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Politics

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Trump Administration

U.S. Senate

A key group of fiscal conservatives is calling on the GOP-led House to immediately get to work on passing President Donald Trump&#8217;s first second-term rescissions package slated to be sent to Congress this week.
In an &#8220;Official Position&#8221; released Monday, the House Freedom Caucus argued that codifying spending cuts sought by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative should be a top priority for lawmakers, who just returned to Capitol Hill after the Memorial Day recess.
&#8220;When the White House submits its first rescissions package to enact DOGE spending cuts to Congress, the House of Representatives should immediately move this to the floor for swift passage,&#8221; the group <a href="https://x.com/freedomcaucus/status/1929628818060235147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The House Freedom Caucus strongly supports these critical rescissions, and we will support as many more rescissions packages the White House can send us in the coming weeks and months.&#8221;
Altogether, the rescissions package is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-budget-director-confirms-first-targets-for-clawing-back-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected</a> to cover roughly $9.4 billion. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funds to NPR and PBS, as well as foreign aid are slated to be the targets of the first request to claw back funds appropriated by Congress. More rescissions packages could follow.
&#8220;These first DOGE cuts target taxpayer-funded public broadcasters notorious for their liberal bias like NPR and PBS, as well as billions in wasteful foreign aid dollars. Passing this rescissions package will be an important demonstration of Congress’s willingness to deliver on DOGE and the Trump agenda,&#8221; the House Freedom Caucus said.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday&amp;_gl=1*1qdq03s*_gcl_au*MTYyNDg0MTE0OS4xNzQxODk4NTMz*_ga*MTEzOTk1NjkxNi4xNzI2MzI1MDQz*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*czE3NDgzNzg2NDgkbzEwMDMkZzEkdDE3NDgzODEwMTckajU4JGwwJGgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
&#8220;While the Swamp will inevitably attempt to slow and kill these cuts, there is no excuse for a Republican House not to advance the first DOGE rescissions package the same week it is presented to Congress then quickly send it for passage in the Republican Senate so President Trump can sign it into law,&#8221; the group added.
Dealing with a narrow majority and Democrats who largely vote in a block against anything they do, House GOP leaders have been under pressure from many in the Republican rank-and-file to codify the DOGE cuts, particularly after the lower chamber narrowly passed the &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; that is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt.
Fiscal hawks who do not think enough is being done to rein in spending could revolt if the Senate makes changes to the legislation, and it gets sent back to the House. The Trump administration wants the bill ready to go by July 4.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-johnson-reveals-two-ways-house-act-doge-findings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> rescissions as being one of two actions the House will take based on findings from the DOGE initiative, in addition to using the appropriations process to &#8220;swiftly implement&#8221; Trump&#8217;s proposed 2026 budget. &#8220;When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1927749395363045819" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a Wednesday post on X.

Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) and other Freedom Caucus members

Fiscal Hawks Make Urgent Demand For ‘DOGE Cuts’

White House

The White House plans to send its first rescissions package of the year to the Congress next week, President Donald Trump&#8217;s budget chief announced on Wednesday, aiming to gut programs that Republicans view as being wasteful and partisan.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said during an interview on Fox Business that the request to claw back funds appropriated by Congress will be delivered to the House on Monday or Tuesday, whenever the lower chamber is back in session.
The package will focus on removing &#8220;waste and garbage&#8221; for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and foreign aid, Vought told host Larry Kudlow.
Vought noted the package will also target NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). NPR just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/business/media/npr-trump-lawsuit-executive-order-funding.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> Trump over his executive order for ending &#8220;taxpayer subsidization&#8221; of outlets presenting &#8220;biased and partisan&#8221; news coverage. In particular, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ending-taxpayer-subsidization-of-biased-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directive</a> seeks to end funds to NPR and PBS through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/WHOMB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WHOMB</a> Director <a href="https://twitter.com/RussVought47?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RussVought47</a> confirms that President Trump&#8217;s first rescissions package — clawing back wasteful spending in USAID, foreign aid, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and NPR — will be sent to Congress next week. <a href="https://t.co/wBZp1lciat">pic.twitter.com/wBZp1lciat</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1927831966658797660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/trump-budget-doge-npr-pbs-usaid-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the rescissions package is expected to cover $9.4 billion and, once delivered, lawmakers will have 45 days to approve it. Vought noted how the measure can be passed by the House and Senate with a simple majority, meaning the filibuster will not be in play.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve had good conversations to make sure they knew it was coming,&#8221; Vought said. &#8220;They had some input as to some of the changes that could be made to make it something that could pass the House. And we&#8217;re excited for that to occur next week.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday&amp;_gl=1*1qdq03s*_gcl_au*MTYyNDg0MTE0OS4xNzQxODk4NTMz*_ga*MTEzOTk1NjkxNi4xNzI2MzI1MDQz*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*czE3NDgzNzg2NDgkbzEwMDMkZzEkdDE3NDgzODEwMTckajU4JGwwJGgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-johnson-reveals-two-ways-house-act-doge-findings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> rescissions as being one of two actions the House will take based on findings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, led by Elon Musk, in addition to using the appropriations process to &#8220;swiftly implement&#8221; Trump&#8217;s proposed 2026 budget.
&#8220;When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts,&#8221; Johnson <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1927749395363045819" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a Wednesday post on X.
During his appearance on Fox Business, Vought also defended the version of Trump’s &#8220;One Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; narrowly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-one-big-beautiful-bill-in-massive-win-for-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> by the House last week after Musk <a href="https://x.com/CBSSunday/status/1927535075144421527" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> it &#8220;undermines&#8221; DOGE&#8217;s cost-cutting efforts because it risks further increasing the federal deficit, which has already surpassed $1 trillion in recent years.
&#8220;We have been in the process of getting the most important priority done, and that is the &#8216;One Big Beautiful Bill&#8217; &#8230; we are in the business of actually passing a law,&#8221; Vought <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1927822695145611426" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;It has $1.6 trillion in actual, mandatory savers for the first time ever.&#8221;

Trump Budget Director Confirms First Targets For Clawing Back Spending

Russ Vought

Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced off with Senator Chris Van Hollen during a fiery Senate hearing on Tuesday over student visas, illegal immigrant gang members, and USAID.
The two faced off after the Maryland Democrat spent over seven minutes criticizing Rubio and expressing regret for having supported his confirmation.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State,” Van Hollen said following his opportunity to question Rubio, choosing instead to deliver a long rant.
“Your regret for voting for me confirms that I am doing a good job based on what I know about your record,” Rubio fired back.
The Senate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-votes-unanimously-to-confirm-marco-rubio-as-secretary-of-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unanimously confirmed</a> Rubio in January.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rubio-threatens-to-snatch-visas-from-pro-hamas-thugs-at-columbia-university?author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Rubio+Threatens+To+Snatch+Visas+From+%E2%80%98Pro-Hamas+Thugs%E2%80%99+At+Columbia+University" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RUBIO THREATENS TO SNATCH VISAS FROM ‘PRO-HAMAS THUGS’ AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY</a>
Rubio responded to Van Hollen’s criticism of the secretary traveling to El Salvador, where illegal alien gang members have been deported and imprisoned.
“In the case of El Salvador, absolutely, absolutely. We deported gang members. Gang members. Including the one that you had a margarita with,” Rubio quipped. “The guy is a human trafficker and that guy is a gangbanger and the evidence is going to be clear in the days to come. You are going to see who you went to defend.”
Van Hollen immediately interrupted before being told to be silent by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch (R-ID).
“He can’t make unsubstantiated comments like that,” Van Hollen said. “Secretary Rubio should take that testimony to federal court in the United States because he hasn’t done it under oath.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sipping-margaritas-dem-senator-finally-meets-deported-illegal-immigrant-in-el-salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Van Hollen visited</a> 29-year-old illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is detained in a Salvadoran mega-prison, in April. Photos went viral of the two drinking margaritas while meeting at a restaurant.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-trump-and-rubio-put-america-first-in-100-days?author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+Trump+And+Rubio+Put+America+First+In+100+Days" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HOW TRUMP AND RUBIO PUT AMERICA FIRST IN 100 DAYS</a>
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ &amp; ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in a <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259">post on X</a> that mocked the meeting.
Rubio attempted to address his former colleague’s remarks on USAID, despite the senator&#8217;s interruptions, explaining that he believes wasteful spending was cut. Rubio pointed out $10 million was cut from a program giving male circumcisions in Mozambique and $227,000 for “Big Cats YouTube channel,” and $14 million for “social cohesion” in Mali.
“I don’t know how that makes us stronger or more prosperous as a nation,” Rubio said.
The two also faced off over Rubio revoking student visas from campus disruptors, including the case of Turkish Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, who had her visa terminated over her alleged “activities in support of Hamas.”
“A visa is not a right, it is a privilege,” Rubio said. “People apply for student visas to come into the United States and study, and if you tell me that you are coming into the United States to lead campus crusades, to take over libraries and try to burn down buildings and acts of violence, we’re not going to give you a visa.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homeland-security-to-screen-immigrants-and-foreign-students-social-media-for-anti-semitism?author=Kassy+Akiva&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=29&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Homeland+Security+To+Screen+Immigrants+And+Foreign+Students%E2%80%99+Social+Media+For+Anti-Semitism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HOMELAND SECURITY TO SCREEN IMMIGRANTS AND FOREIGN STUDENTS’ SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ANTI-SEMITISM</a>
In 2024, Ozturk wrote an op-ed calling on her university to acknowledge the “Palestinian genocide” and to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
The Department of Homeland Security previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/morning-brief-trumps-liberation-day-doge-pr-battle-self-deportation-push" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said it had found</a> Ozturk to have “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” though details are scarce, and a federal judge ordered her release on May 9.
“The bottom line is if you come here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa,” Rubio said. “These kids pay money to go to school, and they have to walk through a bunch of lunatics who are here on student visas.”
Rubio added that the State Department will continue to revoke visas and stated, “I hope we can find more of these people.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Rubio Faces Off With Democratic Senator During Heated Confrontation

antisemitism

Marco Rubio

Senate

This Foreign Aid Agency Locked Its Doors To Keep DOGE Out. Now We Know Why.

Africa

Foreign Funding

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.
“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.280449/gov.uscourts.dcd.280449.2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">court document</a>. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”
Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.
Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.
Akoll was accused of making false statements in Washington, D.C., federal court via an “information,” which typically signals a plea deal.
The fact that the money was paid out highlights how carelessly the government disbursed massive sums during coronavirus. The claim that the company had $40,000 in revenue in 2019 contradicts his own claim that it didn’t exist until January 2020.
The fact that Small Business Administration officials didn’t check state corporation records and catch the fact that it was actually established in November 2020 — or federal tax returns to verify the $40,000 — indicate that the government wasn’t doing basic database cross-referencing, the kind of thing the Department of Government Efficiency has made its bread and butter.
USAID was shuttered, with its remnants folded into the State Department, amidst concern by Republicans and the Department of Government Efficiency that the money was mismanaged. Akoll was in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing to foreign countries, where the money could be difficult to monitor, records <a href="https://www.highergov.com/people/yakoll-usaid-dot-gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a>.
Coronavirus payments were disbursed with little vetting under a “pay and chase” model, where fraudulent claims would ostensibly be recovered later. But the Biden administration quickly gave up on chasing.
The Biden administration said in 2023 that it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sba-wont-even-try-to-collect-on-ppp-loans-that-are-supposed-to-be-paid-back-citing-equity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would not seek to collect</a> on loans of less than $100,000 that were required to be paid back, citing “equity.” Most of the loans were designed to be forgiven, but those who did not meet the requirements were supposed to repay them.
That’s despite the Small Business Administration’s inspector general saying the move “is not in compliance with applicable criteria,” and that not even attempting to stop people from cheating the government encouraged future fraud.  
Congress nearly let the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, which was set up to police fraud in the pandemic bailout, expire in March 2025, which would have quickly closed the book on the government’s largest and most chaotic payment frenzy ever.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had only recovered three dollars for every dollar spent on its staff, which should have been higher. <a href="https://www.courtwatch.news/p/court-watch-112-you-re-about-to-lose-577-billion-dollars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CourtWatch</a>, which advocated for its continuance, said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had meager resources of only a few dozen employees, and that shutting it down could lead to even less recovery. CourtWatch said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had open investigations into $577 million in suspected fraud.
 Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, fought to keep the inspector general, saying, “I will not allow fraudsters to get away with stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers.”
The head of Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions testified to Congress that criminals stole <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/witness-at-first-doge-hearing-confronts-lawmakers-with-scale-of-covid-fraud-they-stole-1-trillion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1 trillion</a> in COVID money, most of which went overseas.

Trump And Musk’s USAID ‘Shut Down’ Threat Opens Door For China

USAID Contracting Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

Coronavirus

Joni Ernst

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth and final part in a series of investigative reports on the African Development Foundation, which gained notoriety for resisting a review by the Department of Government Efficiency. Check out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Foreign+Aid+Official+Who+Resisted+DOGE+Took+Secret+Payments+After+Steering+Africa+Money+To+Friend%C2%A0">part one,</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/african-aid-agency-used-foreign-pass-throughs-to-hide-money-that-went-to-d-c-staff-friends">part two,</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aid-agency-pushed-officials-for-profit-pyramid-scheme-on-poor-africans?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Aid+Agency+Pushed+Official%E2%80%99s+For-Profit+Pyramid+Scheme+On+Poor+Africans">part three</a>.
—
A small, USAID-like federal agency called the African Development Foundation refused to hire white people, and treated white employees who did slip through so poorly that one soiled herself because she was afraid to leave her desk to use the bathroom, employees told The Daily Wire.
The agency violated so many rules and laws that its general counsel was flabbergasted — but when he called attention to it, officials framed him for violent threats and removed him from his job with a bizarre manifesto that called him “grimy” and “unwholesome,” the general counsel, Mateo Dunne, who is white, said.
The agency attracted attention by locking the doors to prevent auditors from the Department of Government Efficiency from seeing its books, and suing Elon Musk to prevent a takeover. The lawsuit is pending, but all of its employees have been laid off after the Trump administration gained access to the office space using U.S. Marshals.
From 2021 until February, the agency was led by CEO Travis Adkins, who came to it after a short stint at USAID as a Joe Biden political appointee.
Adkins’ former assistant, who is black, said in a sworn affidavit that “On at least three occasions, Mr. Adkins told me that he wanted his entire team (to include the General Counsel) to consist only of Black people. He wanted all of his direct reports to be Black.”
“He was very adamant in only hiring African Americans, mainly female, and he told me many times he would not hire a white person or a veteran. I said that’s discrimination, and he said ‘I’m the president and CEO, I can do what I want,’” the assistant told The Daily Wire on condition of anonymity. Adkins is also a lecturer at Georgetown University.
The African Development Foundation was created by Congress in 1980 as a board whose members are appointed by the president of the United States to six-year terms, who in turn appoint a CEO to run day-to-day operations. The board chair was Jack Leslie, a white former staffer to former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) who was appointed to the board by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Adkins bragged about concealing operations from the board, saying “them white motherf&#8212;ers, they don’t need to know… I don’t think I should tell them sh&#8211;,” according to the assistant.
A junior employee disappeared a few months after she took complaints to the board, and the assistant asked what happened to her; Adkins replied, “I just put the white b&#8212;h on a contract and then the contract ended,” the assistant said.
The situation was the same under the prior CEO, C.D. Glin, a former Peace Corps DEI officer and later an Obama political appointee to the Peace Corps who led the agency from 2016 to 2021. “C.D. [Glin] literally said to me that he needed to hire black people,” another employee told The Daily Wire on condition of anonymity. “Virtually everyone he hired in programs was black.”
In 2021, the agency had to pay a settlement after it laid off a white senior executive without paying her severance or following federal rules, and she alleged it was because of her race. It conducted a “reduction in force” that was targeted at her, and falsely claimed she didn’t have the qualifications to shift into another job, even though many of those jobs had actually reported to her.
In previous installments in this series, The Daily Wire reported how its agency&#8217;s CFO received payments to his personal bank account from a company to which he steered $1 million. The agency gave money to African grantees and then instructed them to re-route it to the agency&#8217;s employees and friends in America, and even pushed a for-profit multi-level marketing scheme run by a board member on poor Africans.
<blockquote>
<h1>&#8220;I think USADF deserved the fate that it received, because if it couldn’t be run correctly, then it shouldn’t be run at all.&#8221;</h1>
</blockquote>
<h3>Retaliation</h3>
In a government agency, the job of the general counsel is to ensure that rules and laws are followed. Glin ensured that the role was either empty or filled with junior lawyers with no experience in government, even though the agency engaged in complex international finance.
After he departed as CEO in May 2021, there was a brief period in which the agency had no permanent leader, and a traditional general counsel managed to slip through. When Mateo Dunne, a white former high-level Defense Department executive, took the job, he was appalled by how little the African Development Foundation seemed to care about laws and rules.
The lawyer set out to interview employees about conflicts of interest, purchase card abuse, contracting fraud, and a toxic workplace environment. In a matter of days, the evidence started stacking up. He told the acting CEO, Elisabeth Feleke, that outside lawyers would have to be brought in to document the full scope of the lawbreaking.
Instead, Feleke ordered him to stop the investigation, told him to change the preliminary findings, and falsely told the board the probe was complete, he told The Daily Wire. Dunne stopped investigating, but sent his preliminary report to the board.
He soon learned that despite nearly uniform agreement that Glin had been abusive, the organization wasn’t getting a fresh start. The board agreed to hire a decades-long friend of Glin’s, Travis Adkins, to replace him. When Adkins entered the office for the first time, Glin enveloped him in a bear hug.
Adkins later testified under oath that he was selected to lead the African Development Foundation without even applying for the job, and that he couldn’t recall when or how he managed to be selected.
As Adkins’ start date neared, Dunne prepared to show him the lawbreaking he had found so that Adkins could reform the agency. But it seemed that Adkins already knew, and his first priority was shutting Dunne’s investigation down.
Within hours of Adkins being sworn in as president and CEO in January 2022, he put Dunne on leave and cut off his access to evidence before he could even speak, video shows.
“You will be on administrative leave the very moment that we hang up this call. You will have a box mailed to your home to allow you to send back to us any USADF-issued equipment,” he told Dunne. “You are not to contact any of the members of the USADF staff. And again, your access to all of our data and systems will be closed down immediately.”
Dunne replied: “I had prepared this slide deck to introduce myself and what I’ve done at USADF. This conversation obviously went a different way … I guess I have a couple of questions.”
“We’re not going to do questions and answers,” Adkins said. “We’re not going to have a back and forth about this.” Dunne was never told why he was placed on paid leave, which Adkins acknowledged was the first step in a discipline process.
Internally, the agency sought to build a justification for firing the white lawyer, with chief of staff Brandi James compiling a 75-page manifesto that called Dunne “Adversarial, Belittling, Calculating, Combative, Condescending, Deceitful, Defensive, Grimy, Sinister, and Unwholesome.”
The report called Dunne a “danger to USADF’s mission and staff.” But the details made clear that the risk was not to anyone’s life, but rather the livelihoods of law-breaking bureaucrats. The dossier faulted him for his “insistence on tying up staff time on investigatory digs.”
The evidence of insubordination was that he had investigated apparent spending on luxuries and personal items by top staff, when Acting CEO Elisabeth Feleke said, “I have not given Mateo direction or mandate to investigate credit card fraud.”
<blockquote>
<h1>&#8220;Them white motherf&#8212;ers, they don’t need to know… I don’t think I should tell them sh&#8211;.&#8221;</h1>
</blockquote>
As evidence of Dunne “circumventing and breaching USADF protocols,” the dossier complained that Dunne notified Glin that he had not filed years&#8217; worth of mandatory Office of Government Ethics conflict-of-interest forms, carrying a $600 penalty, even though Feleke told him not to raise the issue. As general counsel, Dunne was the agency’s “designated ethics officer” and required to do so by the government-wide ethics office. The forms would have revealed that the African group had paid money to a group associated with Glin, and refusal to file them can carry criminal penalties.
Adkins went as far as implying that Dunne had threatened to kill him, alluding to something “being sent to people regarding the death of government officials, as all of us are government officials.” This, it turned out, was a fantastical distortion of Dunne sharing a sentimental quote from a New York governor acknowledging the passing of a former legislator.
Then a new comment appeared on the agency’s profile on the employer-review site GlassDoor that said, under “Advice to Management”: “die.” The post was attributed to “General Counsel.” The African Development Foundation sicced four different law enforcement agencies on Dunne for making death threats.
The former Sunday school-teaching lawyer said he was framed. “If I was going to do an anonymous post I would obviously not put my job title in there,&#8221; he said.
Adkins was forthright with the board’s chair, Jack Leslie, about what was really going on. He wrote to Leslie that Dunne was placed on leave for his “efforts to damage USADF’s reputation via the Office of Inspector General…Dunne conducted an unauthorized, backward-focused investigation that unsettled staff. &#8230; He then began leveling accusations that USADF senior leadership was ‘interfering’ with his investigations and General Counsel functions.”
<h3>Lies </h3>
The African Development Foundation never told Dunne what he was being investigated for, or formally moved to fire him, which would require proving that he did something wrong. It simply left him on paid leave indefinitely, violating a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/6329b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> that limits investigative leave to 90 days. After six months, in July 2022, he quit to take another job.
An agency’s top lawyer calling attention to rampant lawbreaking, only for him to be removed from duty, is as remarkable a case of whistleblower retaliation as the government has seen. Dunne provided documentation to the Office of Special Counsel, which exists to investigate whistleblower retaliation. But it closed his file when the employee he’d been working with left her job, he said.
He filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of his race and retaliation. In August 2024, an administrative law judge dismissed his case, even though he had an affidavit from a black employee saying that Adkins had told her repeatedly that he did not want any white people working for him. Dunne is appealing in court.
Dunne deposed African Development Foundation staff in the course of that lawsuit. In his sworn testimony, Adkins denied saying he wouldn’t hire white people — but also claimed he didn’t know how many people worked for him, that he could only remember the names of two, and that he didn’t know what race various employees were.
<div id="attachment_918261" style="width: 746px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-918261" class="size-large wp-image-918261" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/adkins-dep-736x576.jpg" alt="" width="736" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/adkins-dep-736x576.jpg 736w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/adkins-dep-300x235.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/adkins-dep-768x601.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/adkins-dep.jpg 1184w" sizes="(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px" />A typical exchange from Adkins’ deposition</div>
Adkins’ sworn testimony was repeatedly contradicted by documents and the testimony of other employees.
Adkins had told the board that a government-wide human resource office had “recommended Mr. Dunne immediately be placed on Administrative Leave for misconduct and performance.” A representative of that office testified that it was not true.
He denied plotting to remove Dunne as general counsel before he even started as CEO in an effort to spare his friend Glin and officials like Mathieu Zahui, the chief financial officer, and a target of the investigation.
But discovery in the lawsuit showed that Zahui had written during that time period that “The board and the incoming president would like to explore the possibilities of a do-over” on the general counsel hire.
Adkins did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
Dunne said it has been painful to watch some turn the African Development Foundation into a “martyr,” seemingly to avoid acknowledging that DOGE’s scrutiny was warranted, when no one cared to fix it, though signs were abundant that it was broken.
He said he left his job at the Defense Department to come to the African agency “because I wanted to help people,” but found that widespread rule-breaking was short-changing both Africans and low-level staff.
“I think USADF deserved the fate that it received, because if it couldn’t be run correctly, then it shouldn’t be run at all. If the leaders of that agency couldn’t act, and members of the foreign policy establishment wouldn’t act,” he said. “It’s an indictment of the entire system.”
READ MORE:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Foreign+Aid+Official+Who+Resisted+DOGE+Took+Secret+Payments+After+Steering+Africa+Money+To+Friend%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Foreign Aid Official Who Resisted DOGE Took Secret Payments After Steering Africa Money To Friend</a> </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/african-aid-agency-used-foreign-pass-throughs-to-hide-money-that-went-to-d-c-staff-friends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African Aid Agency Used Foreign Pass-Throughs To Hide Money That Went To D.C. Staff</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aid-agency-pushed-officials-for-profit-pyramid-scheme-on-poor-africans?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Aid+Agency+Pushed+Official%E2%80%99s+For-Profit+Pyramid+Scheme+On+Poor+Africans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aid Agency Pushed Official’s For-Profit Pyramid Scheme On Poor Africans</a></li>
</ul>

‘Them White Motherf-ers’: Racist Agency Framed Its Lawyer After He Discovered Lawbreaking, He Says

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Editor’s Note: This is part three in a series of investigative reports on the African Development Foundation, which gained notoriety for resisting a review by the Department of Government Efficiency. 
—
The Department of Government Efficiency has shuttered a small, USAID-adjacent federal agency called the African Development Foundation, over the outrage of Democrats who say it means poor Africans will suffer and public servants will lose their jobs.
But top officials used the agency to advance their own interests and live lives of luxury at the expense of those Africans, while forcing some staff to work without pay and abusing others so badly that they routinely cried, a Daily Wire investigation found.
That included helping Herbalife, a multi-level marketing scheme run by an agency board member, make inroads in Africa. John Agwunobi, who served as CEO of Herbalife, was an African Development Foundation board member until President Donald Trump fired the board in March.
Agency management locked the doors to prevent DOGE auditors from entering, and the Trump administration gained access only with the assistance of U.S. Marshals. The standoff made the agency the subject of <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/united-states-african-development-foudation-doge-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fawning</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/federal-workers-block-musks-doge-africa-development-agency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coverage</a> from media outlets that said it was standing up for principles.
But its employees knew better.
“The hero of the story is actually the villain,” one former employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was so hard to see ADF being used as a beacon of hope and resistance against DOGE because I knew they were actually covering up horrible things…When I saw that ADF was being celebrated as a David vs. Goliath situation, I knew the doors were being kept locked for a reason.”
In 2020, the African agency partnered with Herbalife at Agwunobi’s behest. That was two months after Herbalife paid a $122 million settlement to the Department of Justice to settle criminal charges that it <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/herbalife-nutrition-ltd-agrees-pay-over-122-million-resolve-fcpa-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">violated the Foreign Corrupt</a> Practices Act. It also paid $200 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it was a <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2016/07/herbalife-will-restructure-its-multi-level-marketing-operations-pay-200-million-consumer-redress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pyramid scheme</a> that exploited people into opening money-losing businesses.
The African Development Foundation made it seem like the partnership was with a nonprofit affiliated with Herbalife. But it was actually with the company itself, which was seeking to expand its reach in Africa, the agency’s former general counsel, Mateo Dunne, found, according to materials obtained by The Daily Wire. The grants involved paying five Africans $5,000 and providing them “product donations, and Herbalife Nutrition staff as global volunteers in their businesses,” partnership materials said.
“The marketing materials prepared by USADF and Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. reflect that the partnership was being used to drive corporate sales and marketing, not charitable objectives,” Dunne concluded. “USADF personnel described the partnership with Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. as designed to leverage USADF’s network and reputation to promote the Herbalife brand in Africa.”
That sort of violation of conflict of interest rules was common in the agency, Dunne said.
The agency’s chief executive from 2016 to 2021, C.D. Glin — a former Peace Corps DEI officer and later an Obama political appointee to the Peace Corps — had the agency pay $5,000 a year to an organization, Root Capital, of which he was a board member, employees said. Glin did not file conflict-of-interest reports and ethics pledges, which are required <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-XVI/subchapter-B/part-2634" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by law</a> and designed to prevent such situations, for most of the years he worked there. He filed one in 2019, but omitted Root Capital from it.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-917689" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-572x576.png" alt="" width="572" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-572x576.png 572w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-298x300.png 298w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-150x150.png 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-768x773.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed-1526x1536.png 1526w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/unnamed.png 1590w" sizes="(max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px" /></div>
<h3>Using poverty funds for luxury.</h3>
In January 2022, Travis Adkins, who had been serving as a <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-global-funders-2021-3-biden-appoints-head-of-usaid-africa-bureau/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden appointee</a> to USAID, took over as CEO of the African Development Foundation. He had a lien against him for unpaid federal taxes from 2015 until February 2021, according to public records. Landlords in New York and Washington, D.C., said in court filings that he owed them money.
Employees said both Glin and Adkins used agency spending to build their personal brands and glad-hand with celebrities and billionaires, while treating workers with the callous cruelty of which liberals accuse DOGE, employees said.
Glin had the agency pay for him to “travel to countries and network at things that had nothing to do with grassroots African economic development. He went to a Scandinavian country, a European country, African countries where there was no ADF program being considered. He was spending ADF money to get his next job,” an employee said.
Another employee said he’d have the agency pay to sponsor conferences in order to buy prominent speaking slots: “He’d pay $30,000 to speak at events.”
Glin had the agency pay $1,000 to <a href="http://theboardlist.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">theboardlist.com</a>, which helps executives get prestigious board seats based on DEI hiring in exchange for that amount, and $7,500 for a Harvard executive class just before leaving the agency, workers said.
All of that seems to have paid off: Glin is now president of the PepsiCo Foundation, overseeing $70 million.
<blockquote>
<h3>&#8220;He went to a Scandinavian country, a European country, African countries where there was no ADF program being considered. He was spending ADF money to get his next job.&#8221;</h3>
</blockquote>
Adkins, for his part, brushed off government rules about travel costs and demanded $1,000-a-night hotels, summarily firing an assistant who raised concerns about his travel arrangements, the former assistant told The Daily Wire, speaking on condition of anonymity. He had a tailor fit him for three custom suits, and sent the bill to the agency, she alleged.
The executives seemed more concerned about making the agency look good — so congressional funding would continue flowing — than they were in actually doing good, employees said.
One grantee, called Vava Coffee, violated rules about how it spent grant money, but threatened to publicly disparage the agency as “colonizers” if the checks didn’t keep coming. Glin ordered disbursements to continue, employee Kate Ristroph said in an internal interview obtained by The Daily Wire. She said she eventually succeeded in terminating the grant.
The agency entered into a partnership with the National Basketball Players Association, where NBA players could choose how to spend money in Africa, and American taxpayers would match it. Some of the money was used to build a basketball court.
<h3>Toxic workplace.</h3>
The African Development Foundation had a staff of between 30 and 60, and a budget of $45 million. By law, it was permitted to give grants only to African groups, and in the amount of $250,000 or less.
Glin and Adkins frequently hired workers as contractors instead of government employees, sometimes directing African funding recipients to, in turn, pay D.C. bureaucrats to get around rules and hide their overhead costs.
There were also other advantages. Hiring workers as contractors meant they didn’t have to follow merit-based hiring practices, prove wrongdoing when firing people, or grant them union protections.
The agency appeared so intent on avoiding those protections that it would essentially use government credit cards to pay workers in “micropurchases,” a petty cash-like payment style that avoids scrutiny from Treasury Department officials. One contractor described having to restart her employment every five weeks, each time being paid by a different pass-through LLC, and sometimes working for long periods without pay.
Staff were horrifically mistreated by Glin and Adkins, who acted as if they were global celebrities instead of what amounted to managers of a few dozen people in an obscure organization, according to Daily Wire interviews and videos of an internal investigation.
Brandi James, the chief of staff, said in a videotaped internal interview: “Toxic would be people crying or things like that. Yeah, we had that, we had [Glin] yelling.”
A junior employee said she soiled herself after Glin made her afraid to leave her desk to use the bathroom. She said Glin would pound his fists, and people would walk into his office “with their hands shaking.”
Jeff Gilleo, a senior program manager, called Glin a “narcissistic bully” who “said mean things to almost everybody.”
Associate General Counsel Nina-Belle Mbayu said Glin screamed at her until she cried, and she sought therapy after having “physical reactions” anytime she thought of him. “People were just treated, in my opinion, as disposable,” she said.
Yael Nagar, a senior program analyst, said one employee “went on extended sick leave for a mental health program because they were so stressed at work,” and Glin’s takeaway was “we need to make sure no one…finds out about this.”
Employees said they tried to warn PepsiCo against hiring Glin, sending a letter “about the horrific culture and use of money” under Glin, but that he was hired anyway.
PepsiCo and Glin did not return a request for comment.
The African Development Foundation board also received the letter. But despite widespread agreement about Glin’s toxicity, it hired a close friend of Glin’s, Adkins, without Adkins even applying, Adkins said in a deposition. And many of the patterns continued.
On GlassDoor, the website where employees rate their workplaces, the themes were consistent. “USADF is a scary place to work… Maybe one day it will be a workplace that has admirable values and care for its staff. Presently though, it is rotten to the core,” one wrote in 2023.
“Toxic work environment led by narcissists,” another said that year. “After years of mismanagement, it cannot fulfill its potential.”
Brandi James, the agency’s chief of staff, said in an internal email that she tried to use government funds to pay GlassDoor to remove negative posts about the agency, but the site refused, leaving them visible to anyone who cared to look.
Though DOGE critics now claim that the African Development Foundation was essential and mourn for the jobs lost, when it was operational, no one showed an interest.
It “just seemed like there was never going to be any consequence for any of these things,” Nagar said.
READ PART ONE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Foreign+Aid+Official+Who+Resisted+DOGE+Took+Secret+Payments+After+Steering+Africa+Money+To+Friend%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Foreign Aid Official Who Resisted DOGE Took Secret Payments After Steering Africa Money To Friend</a> 
PART TWO: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/african-aid-agency-used-foreign-pass-throughs-to-hide-money-that-went-to-d-c-staff-friends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African Aid Agency Used Foreign Pass-Throughs To Hide Money That Went To D.C. Staff</a>
PART FOUR: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/them-white-motherf-ers-racist-agency-framed-its-lawyer-after-he-discovered-lawbreaking-he-says?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=Investigation&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=‘Them+White+Motherf-ers’%3A+Racist+Agency+Framed+Its+Lawyer+After+He+Discovered+Lawbreaking%2C+He+Says">‘Them White Motherf-ers’: Racist Agency Framed Its Lawyer After He Discovered Lawbreaking, He Says</a>

African Development Foundation

Aid Agency Pushed Official’s For-Profit Pyramid Scheme On Poor Africans

Corruption

Editor&#8217;s Note: This is part two in a series of investigative reports on the African Development Foundation, which gained notoriety for resisting a review by the Department of Government Efficiency. 
—
When Department of Government Efficiency aides showed up at a small USAID-linked federal agency called the African Development Foundation in March, its management locked the doors and refused to let them in. A fired board member <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118/gov.uscourts.dcd.278118.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> to stop DOGE, and the group was <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/united-states-african-development-foudation-doge-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lauded</a> for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/federal-workers-block-musks-doge-africa-development-agency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resisting</a> DOGE&#8217;s demands for “access to USADF systems including financial records, payment and human resources systems.”
But the objection, several former employees told The Daily Wire, might not have been on principled grounds, but rather because those records amounted to a crime scene.
The African Development Foundation has an annual budget of just $45 million. But, operating out of sight and out of mind, it might have been the most corrupt agency in Washington, a Daily Wire investigation found. Its employees have been sounding the alarm for years about a culture of self-dealing, abuse, and anti-white discrimination, while those who now object to DOGE’s shuttering of the agency did nothing to help fix it.
By <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/96/hr6942/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a>, the agency is only allowed to give grants to Africa-based groups. But it moved money through African entities and then back to the United States to pad salaries of D.C. bureaucrats and pay their friends and former employers, employees said.
Until the DOGE takeover, which culminated in U.S. Marshals ordering building security to let Trump administration officials in, the agency was led by CEO Travis Adkins, who arrived in 2021 after a short stint as a Biden appointee at USAID. An assistant to Adkins said after she asked why her paycheck was lower than agreed upon, Adkins informed her that the remainder would be coming from an overseas account.
He “sent me an email connecting me with this guy in Africa who asked for my banking information. Within a few days this guy wired me $17,000,” she told The Daily Wire on condition of anonymity. The Daily Wire reviewed bank paperwork showing the transfer from an account in Kenya.
Another longtime employee, she said, was eventually “put on the payroll of an African partner and was informed she was being paid through an entity in Mauritania. No payroll, state or federal taxes were withheld from her paychecks.”
“The contracts don’t make sense and they know [DOGE] will find lots of wrongdoing and illegal activity,” she said. “I’m not a fan of DOGE, but some of the things they’re doing need to be done. They have been operating like this for years and no one did anything about it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Getting more dramatic now. They are trying to get into the office but the agency won&#8217;t let them. Here is a video, shared with permission, of Marocco and some of the DOGE folks outside the elevators <a href="https://t.co/VkLmw3hodW">pic.twitter.com/VkLmw3hodW</a>
— Brett Murphy (@BrettMmurphy) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrettMmurphy/status/1897356477725278340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Video shows DOGE aides locked out of the African Development Foundation&#8217;s office. / @BrettMmurphy
<h3>International money-laundering?</h3>
As the Trump administration dismantled USAID and contractors in D.C.’s affluent suburbs complained about the job losses it would cause, some speculated about whether international charity funding was being laundered to politically-connected Washingtonians.
That is not dissimilar to what the African Development Foundation did regularly, according to The Daily Wire’s interviews with employees as well as videotaped internal interviews that became part of a lawsuit.
In one instance, it awarded a grant to a Kenyan journalism group called Africa 24 and directed that group to, in turn, pay the salaries of Americans at the federal agency’s D.C. headquarters. That meant Congress thought it was a charitable grant to Africa, and that the agency had a low overhead rate. In reality, the money was being spent on D.C. bureaucrats.
Chief Financial Officer Mathieu Zahui acknowledged and defended the arrangement.
“The grant was provided to an African organization&#8230;A grant can pay for people,” he told The Daily Wire in an interview at his home, where he has been spending his days after being locked out of the office. “Yeah, granted, they were in D.C.”
Part one of this series revealed that last year, the USAID inspector general seized Zahui’s phone and found that he had received <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Foreign+Aid+Official+Who+Resisted+DOGE+Took+Secret+Payments+After+Steering+Africa+Money+To+Friend%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">payments to his personal bank account</a> from the owner of a company to which he steered contracts, but he has not been charged with a crime.
<blockquote>
<h1>“We’re in that murky territory of like, is this legal?” a staffer said. “The CEO specifically directed it.”</h1>
</blockquote>
The agency hired many workers as contractors instead of official government employees, making it possible to pay them using creative funding mechanisms. Once they were hired, executives drew no distinction between contractors and government employees, even having contractors supervise employees, possess government credit cards, and make decisions about money in violation of federal rules, the agency’s former general counsel, Mateo Dunne, told The Daily Wire.
Its CEO from 2016 to 2021, C.D. Glin — a former Peace Corps DEI officer and later an Obama political appointee to the Peace Corps — reverse-engineered African grants to steer money to friends in the United States, employees said.
The agency gave grants to the Association of Ghana Industries on the condition that the African group pay Pyxera Global, a D.C. organization where Glin previously worked as director of business development, to “do a study of the artisan sector in Ghana,” agency program manager Kate Ristroph said in a videotaped internal investigative interview with Dunne.
“We’re in that murky territory of like, is this legal?” she said. “The CEO specifically directed it.”
Glin attempted to foist grants addressing nonexistent problems on African groups as a way to steer money to an affiliate of the Aspen Institute, the left-wing Colorado nonprofit, called Artisan Alliance, Ristroph said. The head of Artisan Alliance at the time “flat out tells us she’s a close personal friend of C.D. Glin,” she said.
The agency offered a grant to the Heva Fund, an African group, on the condition that it send a portion to Artisan Alliance. The grant was ostensibly to produce personal protective equipment like face masks, even though Heva told the agency there was no demand for such a thing because affordable personal protective equipment was readily available in the region.
Heva was so uncomfortable with the proposition that it asked to cancel the grant, Ristroph said. So the agency pushed the plan on a Kenyan group called Ustadi, which also balked, saying “We don&#8217;t need to pay Artisan Alliance, an American company, to help Kenyans learn how to sell masks,” she said.
In another case, a grant to the African group CS Consulting was used to pay the <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/supporting-small-and-medium-enterprises-sub-saharan-africa-through-blended-finance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Center for Strategic and International Studies</a>, a D.C. think tank. “It’s all basically a pass through to CSIS,” Ristroph said.
She said the agency trains African grantees to avoid third-world style corruption by only giving out contracts that have been competitively bid at arm&#8217;s length, yet she was forced to tell them that the Americans were ordering them to do the opposite.
“I was on the phone with them…saying we’re signing a new grant to [the Association of Ghana Industries], and there will be a component that is a contract with Pyxera Global that is not competed. It’s already been decided,” she said. “It puts me in a compromising position.”
READ PART ONE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Foreign+Aid+Official+Who+Resisted+DOGE+Took+Secret+Payments+After+Steering+Africa+Money+To+Friend%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Foreign Aid Official Who Resisted DOGE Took Secret Payments After Steering Africa Money To Friend</a> 
PART THREE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aid-agency-pushed-officials-for-profit-pyramid-scheme-on-poor-africans?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Aid+Agency+Pushed+Official%E2%80%99s+For-Profit+Pyramid+Scheme+On+Poor+Africans">Aid Agency Pushed Official’s For-Profit Pyramid Scheme On Poor Africans</a>
PART FOUR: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/them-white-motherf-ers-racist-agency-framed-its-lawyer-after-he-discovered-lawbreaking-he-says?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=Investigation&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=‘Them+White+Motherf-ers’%3A+Racist+Agency+Framed+Its+Lawyer+After+He+Discovered+Lawbreaking%2C+He+Says">‘Them White Motherf-ers’: Racist Agency Framed Its Lawyer After He Discovered Lawbreaking, He Says</a>

African Aid Agency Used Foreign Pass-Throughs To Hide Money That Went To D.C. Staff

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