US rolling back foreign aid spending

 Washington Free Beacon:

The State Department has eliminated $214 million in foreign funding initiatives, nixing 139 taxpayer-funded grants that promoted, among other things, "newsroom sustainability" in Moldova, "media diversity" in the United Kingdom, and "environmental resilience" in Armenia, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

DOGE carried out the "supplemental review of remaining foreign assistance grant programs" after the State Department completed its initial foreign funding review in late February, an internal State Department memo obtained by the Free Beacon shows. Though the initial review saw the agency identify $60 billion worth of foreign grants for elimination, DOGE's supplemental probe revealed "a significant number of grant programs which remain inconsistent with Administration policies," particularly those related to "media advocacy programming," according to the memo.

Axed grants include a $14.6 million program that supported "expanded newsroom sustainability and engagement" in Moldova; a $5.2 million "media diversity" grant that funded an "anti-disinformation program in the United Kingdom"; a $400,000 "Building Environmental Resilience" grant in Armenia; a $1 million grant "channeling gig workers' rights" in Brazil; and a $750,000 grant for "building the migrant domestic worker-led movement" in Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway over the government.
...

I suspect these grants were a means of buying PR in some cases.  Throwing money at a program like this is probably not the best way to build a relationship with a foreign government.  The Trump team is obviously serious about cutting government spending that has led to huge deficits, especially during the Biden years.

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