Inside The New Group Remaking The Trump-Rubio State Department
They're going to try to paint what we're doing in the least flattering light"
'Nothing to be proud of': State Department spits on USAID's grave following Bono, Obama eulogies
Bono, the Irish singer valued at around $700 million whose real name is Paul David Hewson, did his apparent best on the May 30 episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" to push the narrative that the Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development would result in the deaths of multitudes of foreigners.
Rogan didn't buy what Bono was selling, noting, "For sure, it was a money-laundering operation. For sure, there was no oversight. For sure, billions of dollars are missing."
Just as the Irishman's fearmongering fell flat on the podcast, similar efforts by Bill Gates and other super-wealthy individuals apparently keen to keep American taxpayers running funds through their organizations and on the hook for wasteful foreign projects failed to achieve their desired effect.
'The amount of USAID dollars going to local partners increased only from 4% to 6%.'
The USAID was officially shuttered on Tuesday, just weeks after the State Department took over its foreign assistance programs.
Responding to the eulogies offered up for USAID during a video conference on Monday by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, as well as by Bono, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce made abundantly clear that tears shed for the agency are wasted on what was a bloated and ineffective bureaucracy.
To drive home her point, Bruce damned the former agency with some admissions from its former administrator and longtime champion, Samantha Power.
"Samantha Power, the last USAID director under the last administration at the end of 2024, complained in public statements that when she started only 7 percent of aid money that was assigned to various projects and groups made it to its intended destination, and that’s because of bureaucracy and layers of contractors," said Bruce. "And she was proud that she got it up to 10 percent."
Power noted in a 2021 speech, "In the last decade, despite numerous efforts, initiatives, and even support from Capitol Hill, the amount of USAID dollars going to local partners increased only from 4% to 6%."
She suggested that cash was instead poured into big, remote NGOs "because working with local partners, it turns out, is more difficult, time-consuming, and it's riskier," adding that local partners "often lack the internal accounting expertise our contracts require."
USAID funds are instead gobbled up by "implementing partners," such as private contractors, government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations. The Congressional Research Service noted:
Few foreign governments receive direct budget support, and some foreign assistance dollars never leave the United States at all — instead going to a U.S. business for the end benefit of a foreign population. Money goes to U.S. farmers, defense contractors, and management consultants, among others, for commodities or services provided to benefit foreign populations.
In 2021, Power set a target for the agency: By 2025, 25% of USAID funding would go directly to the intended destinations to support the efforts of locally led organizations. The Democratic former adviser to Obama failed miserably.
According to Devex, the percentage of eligible funding that went to local organizations went from 10.2% in 2022 to 9.6% the following year.
'We are not ending foreign aid. We are making it more nimble.'
"Less than 10% of our foreign assistance dollars flowing through USAID is actually reaching those communities," Walter Kerr, co-founding executive director of Unlock Aid, told PBS earlier this year. "About 98% of USAID grants pay for activities and not results."
"Forty-three percent of [the activities] failed to achieve about half of the intended results. But in spite of that, they still got paid in full almost every time and sometimes more," added Kerr.
Kerr indicated that working with local partners could prove far more effective.
"One study found that, when working with a local partner, as opposed to an international aid contractor, you could find savings upwards of 32% alone. And that's a conservative estimate," said Kerr.
RELATED: Pentagon spox responds to Blaze News reporter on Ukraine saying aid reduction will embolden Russia
Bruce noted that within the Trump administration's new foreign aid framework, bureaus will be assigned to various regions around the globe.
"That foreign assistance for that region will now sit with the bureau assigned to that region as opposed to some massive bureaucracy, not even housed in our building, dealing with countries and regions separately without dealing with the experts here who understand what those regions might need," said Bruce. "It will be more efficient. It will be more effective. We are not ending foreign aid. We are making it more nimble."
'This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end.'
Obama, among those evidently happy to pretend USAID was worth its salt, said in a video excerpt obtained by the Associated Press on Monday, "Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world."
Bono reportedly read a poem, repeated his suggestion that millions will now die without USAID, then told agency workers, "They called you crooks. When you were the best of us."
Bruce countered in her Wednesday press conference by stating that "there is nothing to be proud of when 90%, according to Samantha Power, is not even making it to the people to whom it was promised."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a July 1 article on his department's Substack page, "Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown. On the global stage, the countries that benefit the most from our generosity usually fail to reciprocate."
"This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end," continued Rubio. "Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests."
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Rubio's State Department slams door on British band after anti-Israel rant at music fest
The upcoming U.S. tour for a British punk-rap duo is now in doubt after the U.S. State Department revoked the bandmates' visas following an anti-Israel rant at Glastonbury last weekend.
On Saturday, Bob Vylan — composed of Bobby Vylan, aka Pascal Robinson-Foster, and drummer Bobbie Vylan — took the stage at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, one of the most popular music events in the world. There, with a Palestinian flag adorning a banner with his band's name in the background, front man Bobby Vylan made clear that his group supports the Palestinian cause and wishes "death" upon members of the Israel Defense Forces.
'I said what I said.'
"All right, but have you heard this one, though? 'Death, death to the IDF,'" Vylan said.
After the audience dutifully chanted, "Death, death to the IDF," over and over and enthusiastically waved Palestinian flags, Vylan added, "Hell yeah. From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be — inshallah — it will be free!"
Video of the speech can be seen here.
Response to the rant from Bobby Vylan was swift and fierce. Glastonbury Festival organizer Emily Eavis posted to social media that she was "appalled" by Vylan's words.
"Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech, or incitement to violence," she said.
The BBC, which streamed the Bob Vylan performance live, later expressed "regret" for not pulling the livestream. "The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence," the BBC said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "The anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance."
The U.S. State Department likewise took notice of Vylan's speech and immediately moved to block visas for both Bobby and Bobbie Vylan.
"The @StateDept has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants," Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau posted to X on Monday. "Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country."
RELATED: Rubio to 'aggressively' revoke Chinese nationals' student visas to eviscerate CCP's spy invasion
— (@)
Bob Vylan is scheduled to perform on this side of the Atlantic Ocean later this year, kicking off a 16-stop North American tour with a gig in Spokane, Washington, in October. The revoked visas likely put this tour in jeopardy.
For the moment, Bobby Vylan appears unfazed by all the "support and hatred" he has received since the stunt. In an Instagram post on Sunday, he encouraged parents to demonstrate in the streets and model political activism for their children.
"It is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us," his lengthy statement read in part. "Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change. Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered."
He later commented: "I said what I said."
Vylan also posted, "While Zionists are crying on socials, I’ve just had late night (vegan) ice cream," according to the U.K. Standard.
RELATED: Rubio not taking guff from ICC — hammers foreign judges over targeting of US and Israel
Since he became secretary of state earlier this year, Marco Rubio has prioritized removing from the U.S. foreigners who threaten America and American values, especially those who take advantage of the opportunity to study at our prestigious universities.
"If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we're not going to give you a visa," Rubio said back in March.
"We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses."
On his first day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to take "forceful and unprecedented steps to combat anti-Semitism," which included revoking foreign student visas and deporting Hamas sympathizers.
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'Rogue' Biden judge ignores biological truth, blocks Trump's common-sense passport policy
Gender ideologues' narrative about sex, identity, and the supposed benefits of medical transvestism has collapsed in recent years under the weight of comprehensive scientific studies. Polling shows the American public also majoritively rejects their core claims and policy aims.
With science and public opinion largely against them, gender ideologues now appear to be primarily fighting their war against common sense in the courts, where they are, for the most part, losing. Meddlesome U.S. district court judges are, however, doing their part to delay the final defeat of gender ideology, at least where the law and federal policy are concerned.
'Gender ideology is internally inconsistent.'
A day before the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Tennessee's ban on sex-change genital mutilations and sterilizing puberty blockers for minors, a Biden judge blocked the Trump administration from requiring passports to accurately reflect the holders' sex.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to Blaze News, "This is yet another attempt by a rogue judge to thwart President Trump's agenda and push radical gender ideology that defies biological truth."
"There are only two genders, there is no such thing as gender 'X,' and the president was given a mandate by the American people to restore common sense to the federal government," added Kelly.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order rejecting gender ideology and instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
"'Gender ideology' replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true," Trump said in his order.
The president noted further that "gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body."
The president directed his secretaries of state and homeland security to ensure that government-issued identification documents, including passports and visas, were reality-affirming — as they had been until 2021, when the Biden administration began allowing people to choose their own sex marker as well as a third marker, "X," instead of an "M" or an "F" marker.
RELATED: The culture war isn’t a distraction — it’s the main front
Several transvestites joined the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Covington & Burling LLP in a lawsuit over the passport policy earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick granted them a preliminary injunction in April preventing the State Department's enforcement of Trump's Executive Order 14168 while the lawsuit played out — but only as it applied to six of the plaintiffs.
Kobick suggested that the plaintiffs' inability to extend their self-deception to their federal documents would make them more "likely to experience worsened gender dysphoria, anxiety, and psychological distress, and they will face a greater risk of experiencing harassment and violence."
The Massachusetts-based Biden judge expanded her injunction on Wednesday after the plaintiffs amended their complaint and moved to apply the preliminary injunction to other potentially affected gender-benders whom they wanted broadly to be certified as a class.
Adopting the language of gender ideologues, Kobick granted the plaintiffs class certification, meaning that the lawsuit can now apply to "people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to them under the Passport Policy and/or who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria," people who simply want their passport to indicate the wrong sex, and "all people who currently want, or in the future will want, a U.S. passport and wish to use an 'X' sex designation."
'The government has failed to meet this standard.'
"Even assuming a preliminary injunction inflicts some constitutional harm on the Executive Branch, such harm is the consequence of the State Department's adoption of a Passport Policy that likely violates the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans," wrote Kobick.
RELATED: Behind the rainbow curtain: Who is funding the trans agenda targeting kids?
"The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny," added the Biden judge. "That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard."
Li Nowlin-Sohl, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU's LGBTQ and HIV Project, called the ruling "a historic win in the fight against this administration's efforts to drive transgender people out of public life. The State Department’s policy is a baseless barrier for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans and denies them the dignity we all deserve."
When asked about the ruling, a State Department spokesperson told Blaze News that as a general matter, officials "do not comment on pending or ongoing litigation."
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Clinton judge blocked workforce cuts — yet Rubio just proved with USAID that where there's a will, there's a way
A Clinton judge barred the Trump administration last month from executing any large-scale reductions in force in order to "preserve the status quo."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered on Tuesday the termination of the U.S. Agency for International Development's remaining overseas staff, demonstrating that some obstacles created by meddlesome federal judges can easily be surmounted.
How it started
A gang of labor unions, leftist NGOs, and local governments sued the Trump administration in late April, hoping to block the government's reduction-in-force plans.
Their complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, suggested that the "president does not possess authority to reorganize, downsize, or otherwise transform the agencies of the federal government, unless and until Congress authorizes such action" and argued that President Donald Trump's Feb. 11 executive order aimed at "eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity" was unlawful.
'Every day that the preliminary injunction remains in effect, a government-wide program to implement agency RIFs is being halted and delayed.'
The plaintiffs demanded the court: declare that Trump had violated the Constitution; declare that the White House's Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Government Efficiency "exceeded statutory authority and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner"; vacate Trump's executive order and relevant agency memoranda; and restrain the Trump administration from enforcing Trump's workforce executive order.
They found a sympathetic U.S. district court judge in Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee who came recommended by former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.
RELATED: USAID program contractor defrauds taxpayers of $100,000 in latest agency scandal
Illston granted the gang of change-averse plaintiffs a temporary restraining order on May 9, then hit the administration with an injunction on May 22, blocking Trump's executive order and barring 20 executive-branch entities and "any other individuals acting under their authority or the authority of the president" from executing any reductions in force.
Illston stated that "the president likely must request congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks."
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to overturn the Clinton judge's order, the Trump administration asked for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer noted in the government's request for a stay that "every day that the preliminary injunction remains in effect, a government-wide program to implement agency RIFs is being halted and delayed, maintaining a bloated and inefficient workforce while wasting countless taxpayer dollars."
"The inevitable consequence is to compel federal agencies to keep large numbers of employees on the payroll without necessity, at unrecoverable taxpayer expense, thereby frustrating the government’s efforts to impose budgetary discipline and build a more efficient workforce," wrote Sauer.
The solicitor general also suggested that the "district court's novel imposition of limits on the president’s ability to control executive agencies in exercising their power over personnel is the same type of important question of federal law that warrants this Court’s review."
The gang responded on Monday, asking the high court to keep Illston's order in place.
How it's going
On Tuesday, Rubio told American embassies around the world to get cracking on abolishing all USAID positions, noting in a cable obtained by the Guardian that the State Department "is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions."
The national security directive cited by Rubio gives the highest-ranking diplomat assigned to a given country control of the size, composition, and mandate of overseas staffing for U.S. government agencies.
'It shouldn't surprise anyone.'
All USAID positions will reportedly be erased by Sept. 30. This will impact hundreds of staff, including contractors, locally employed workers, and foreign service officers.
The secretary noted further that the State Department would take over the agency's foreign assistance programs by next week.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters Tuesday "that was not a surprise. It shouldn't surprise anyone."
"It’s nothing new, and it is exactly what we previewed in February and March of this year," said Bruce, adding that the aim of the change is to make sure that America's aid efforts around the world correspond with the "America First agenda."
Rubio made the order days after Bill Gates reportedly made a secret visit to the White House and begged him to reverse course on changes to the foreign aid regime.
It appears that Gates' last-ditch charm offensive, first reported by Tara Palmeri of the Red Letter, was no more effective than his USAID-themed smear campaign, where he characterized Elon Musk as a hard-hearted killer of millions.
The plaintiffs for whom Judge Illston blocked Trump's executive order claimed that Rubio's recent action appears to violate the federal court's injunction, reported the Associated Press.
However, Daniel Holler, Rubio's deputy chief of staff, clarified in a Monday court filing that the actions taken with regard to USAID staffers predate the blocked Trump order.
Holler noted that:
- Rubio got the ball rolling on developing "a plan to reorganize the Department to be more streamlined and to advance the administration's core America First diplomatic priorities" in late January;
- Rubio informed Congress of his intention to explore "a potential reorganization of USAID and/or its potential absorption by the Department of State" in a Feb. 3 letter;
- subsequent reorganization efforts were "undertaken solely at the direction and discretion of Secretary Rubio" and predate Trump's February order;
- the reorganization is intended to address foreign policy needs, an assertion that appears to hint at the limits of Illston's jurisdiction.
When asked about the significance of these firings and the broader cleanup at USAID, a State Department spokesperson told Blaze News, "Under President Trump's leadership, Secretary Rubio is taking a historic step in realigning how the United States delivers foreign aid and implements its America First Foreign Policy to ensure foreign assistance advances U.S. national interests."
"In connection with the Department assuming responsibility for limited former USAID programming, the Secretary approved the hiring of certain positions for both American (U.S. direct hire) and locally employed staff," added the spokesperson.
In terms of next steps, the spokesperson indicated that the U.S. will continue to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance but noted "the United States cannot feed the world alone. We ask capable nations to increase their share of the burden for life-saving foreign aid."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!Rubio not taking guff from ICC — hammers foreign judges over targeting of US and Israel
Secretary of State Marco Rubio slapped four judges on the International Criminal Court with sanctions on Thursday over their efforts "to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel."
The antagonistic efforts on the parts of the judges — Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia — are particularly provocative since the court has no jurisdiction over either country, as neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the court or party to the Rome Statute, which founded the court in 2002.
"The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies," Rubio said in a statement. "This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel."
The sanctions are in accordance with President Donald Trump's February executive order titled "Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court," in which he indicated the U.S. will "impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC's transgressions."
In the order, Trump noted that the ICC has engaged in "illegitimate and baseless actions" targeting America and Israel; has unlawfully asserted jurisdiction over and launched probes concerning American personnel; and has "abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant."
The ICC issued arrest warrants for the two Israelis in November, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes — including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, and persecution — allegedly committed between Oct. 8, 2023, and May 20, 2024.
Numerous Western officials said that they would implement the warrants, including then-EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
Trump said that the ICC's endeavor to have officials from non-member nations arrested "set a dangerous precedent," in part by threatening to infringe on the sovereignty of the U.S. and Israel and undermining both nations' national security and foreign policy work.
'The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty.'
The State Department indicated in its announcement of the sanctions against the four ICC judges that the agency does "not take this step lightly" and that it "reflects the seriousness of the threat we face from the ICC's politicization and abuse of power."
The ICC condemned the actions, claiming they constitute "a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe."
"Targeting those working for accountability does nothing to help civilians trapped in conflict. It only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity," continued the ICC. "These sanctions are not only directed at designated individuals, they also target all those who support the Court, including nationals and corporate entities of States Parties."
Blaze News reached out to the State Department for comment on the ICC's characterization of the sanctions but did not immediately receive a reply.
RELATED: Rubio wages war on foreign free-speech tyrants with visa ban
As a result of the Trump administration's sanctions, the judges' property and interests in property in the U.S. or in the control of American persons will be blocked and reported to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Similarly, any entities directly or indirectly owned by the judges will also be blocked.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump and Rubio, stating, "You have justly stood up for the right of Israel, the United States, and all democracies to defend themselves against savage terror."
"The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC," said Rubio. "I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel."
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State Department Protects Americans’ Speech By Restricting Visas For Foreign Censors
The Trump administration’s targeting of foreign censors marks a significant departure from a Biden administration that coordinated global speech restrictions.Today's top stories
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