Did USAID press its thumb the scales of our elections?
by Patrice Johnson | February 7, 2025 Revised Feb. 8, 2025
Last Saturday, the Trump Administration locked down the headquarters and confiscated the computers of one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency’s website went dark, and its homepage now bears only a three-paragraph statement. Effective today (Friday, Feb. 7) all direct-hire personnel are placed on administrative leave globally. Nonessential overseas personnel will be recalled to the U.S. within 30 days, and nonessential contracts are going to be terminated. Agencies seeking exemptions may apply for waivers.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) supported the shutdown, stating that USAID’s closure is “just the tip of the iceberg.”
In contrast, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other Democratic leaders have strongly opposed the move. They argue that dismantling USAID could weaken America’s global influence and humanitarian efforts.
No matter one's position, all would agree that the action paused operations of a behemoth,10,000-employee agency. USAID has a $50 billion annual budget, making it larger than many countries. Much like a sovereign nation, it operated independently until this week. Now the agency reports to the Department of State. Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken the helm.
Amid allegations of USAID’s massive misbehavior, one question comes to mind:
Did the agency influence our nation’s elections?
Indicators
Despite its name, USAID’s mission is less about aid and more about advancing U.S. geopolitical interests. President John F. Kennedy founded USAID in 1961, and since then the agency has come under increasing scrutiny regarding its financial practices and international operations. Investigators claim that many—possibly all—of USAID's projects are fronts for the CIA and other three-letter intelligence operations.
Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), called USAID a “criminal organization.” The operational pause was not about removing a worm from an apple, but rather about dealing with an entire “bowl of worms,” he said.
Mike Benz, President of the Freedom Foundation, claimed the agency was taken over by globalists. In other words, the investigator indicated USAID had gone rogue in blatant disregard of our nation’s principles. If true, taxpayer dollars were spent to undermine the citizens' constitutional republic.
Did USAID worm its way into U.S. elections?
If Musk’s purchase of X (formerly Twitter) and his release of the Twitter Files taught us anything, it is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Until the Musk-Rubio takeover of USAID, the agency appeared to wield absolute power.
As The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado shows, influence operations are about controlling the reins of government power, and the process of gaining power starts with winning elections.
Norm Eisen, a former operative with the CIA turned Brookings Institute fellow, perfected what he calls the Playbook, a step-by-step process for overthrowing a government and “saving democracy.” In 2020, Eisen and “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” described firsthand how they had worked “together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information” –all to keep Trump from winning re-election. (The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,Time Magazine)
Eisen and his self-described cabal were surprisingly brazen in admitting they applied their government-toppling tactics inside the U.S. during the 2020 election. The article, based on interviews with Eisen and other members of the cabal, stated,
"They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding." [Emphasis added]
“[T]he efforts of this cabal ‘touched every aspect of the election,’ including our election laws. These groups engaged in a unified legal front to ‘change voting systems and laws’ at the state level, often unconstitutionally bypassing state legislatures and shifting power to the state governors in the process....[E]fforts to push back were labeled 'voter suppression.'" (Opinion: Time Magazine Details the ‘Shadow Campaign’ Against Trump, Epoch Times)
Was USAID one of the public entities that contributed "hundreds of millions" in funding this Playbook effort? If so, how could the agency do it?
An unholy alliance between USAID and ActBlue?
“The Republican-led House Administration Committee has found evidence that illegal donations from China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela may have been laundered to Democratic campaigns through the party’s online fundraising juggernaut ActBlue,” the New York Post reported on October 28, 2024.
Will money trails reveal that ActBlue, the Democrat Party’s leading electronic platform for processing individual contributions, laundered USAID dollars back into the U.S?
The process, hypothetically, would go like this: Say USAID would like to change the government of Argentina, but Argentina refuses to let them in. USAID grants a non-governmental organization (NGO) funding to open a school to teach English. No school is ever opened, but it is staffed with CIA agents who go about their business of implementing Eisen’s Playbook. They influence the media, infuse DEI onto college campuses, and otherwise destabilize society.
Sources claim USAID funding has supported political influence campaigns in Ukraine, Venezuela, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and various social media platforms.
Since its founding in 2004 through Feb. 7, 2025, ActBlue raised $16.4 billion.
In an extensive interview on Feb. 4, Benz alleged to conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that globalist interests have co-opted control of the agency. He referred to USAID as the “skeleton key” unlocking government efforts to stifle populist movements and quash free speech on college campuses and social media.
Benz first raised concerns about USAID two years ago. (Watch: Mike Benz Exposes Burgeoning Government/Big Tech Censorship Industry (Part 1).
“USAID has been fully exposed as a left-wing money laundering criminal organization,” Benny Johnson said. “President Trump and Elon Musk must shut it down.”
Benz pushed back. He warned that globalist influence extends across both political parties, so efforts to rein in USAID will likely encounter fierce, deep-pocketed resistance.
Time Magazine’s Shadow Campaign article, published Feb. 4, 2021, also supported this bipartisan claim. Author Molly Ball quoted activist Norm Eisen as saying, “The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both partieswho accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation.” The article reported that Eisen recruited Republicans and Democrats to the board of the Voter Protection Program.
Was USAID involved in stimulating the mass illegal migration into the U.S?
Musk had the foresight (and sense of humor) to lockdown USAID’s building on a Saturday. He postd on X, "Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it's like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days!"
With the building essentially empty, DOGE had free rein to access all the receipts and money trails, all the personnel files.
Will some of these money trails lead to Central America, particularly to the Northern Triangle, whose residents from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have flooded across U.S. borders?
Without question, the illegal migration into the U.S. was encouraged for political gain. Who mobilized and funded the mass migration of millions of illegal migrants across U.S. borders? Who provided grants and organized nonprofit organizations to arrange for illegal migrants to register and vote? Who poured money into setting them up to receive food stamps and subsidized housing? Legal assistance and automobiles? Medical care and access to public education?
Michigan’s “Newcomer Program“ provides rent subsidies and legal assistance to illegal migrants, aiding them to claim asylum in order to delay deportation. Bypass a Wall. Grab a Ballot - Michigan's Newcomer Program Supports Illegal Migrants. Part 1 and Bypass a Wall. Grab a Ballot (Part 2)
Who funded the organizations responsible for ballot initiatives that stripped citizenship checks out of the voter registration process, and why would Governor Gretchen Whitmer support these changes?
What influenced the Social Security Administration to change its citizenship verification process, so a SSN applicant may register online without ever having to see another person, without producing documentation that they are a "new" citizen, or verifying they are a human being? ALERT: SSA changes Citizenship Verification Process
It’s a small world after all
Today, The Federalist published USAID funneled $799 million to a group that launched a global censorship platform and pushed radical gender ideology. Author Logan Washburn wrote, “[G]overnment funding disclosures have brought to light the often frivolous, and in this case nefarious, use of public tax dollars."
Washburn’s article followed The Federalist’s February 5 publication of Defunding USAID Isn’t About Reducing The Deficit, It’s About Shutting Down Left-Wing Propaganda
How much of USAID’s global seepage contaminated the wells of free speech and fair elections here in the U.S.A?
Claims of Fraudulent Expenditures
Several investigative sources have published lists of alleged misallocated funds within USAID, including:
· $1.14 billion for an unfinished post-earthquake reconstruction project in Haiti (Source: Benny Johnson)
· $74 million in unaccounted “democracy promotion” funds in Cuba (Source: Benny Johnson)
· Millions spent on nonexistent hospitals in Afghanistan
· $40 million in COVID-19 research funding allegedly directed to a Wuhan scientist (Source: Benny Johnson)
· $2.5 million for DEI initiatives in Serbia
· $70,000 for a diversity, equity, and inclusion musical in Ireland
· $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia
· $32,000 for a trans comic book in Peru
· $20 million for an LGBTQ-focused children’s program in Iraq
· $56 million for tourism projects in Egypt and Tunisia
· $40 million for unspecified schools in Jordan
· $11 million to combat trash burning in Vietnam
· $27 million for deportee gift bags in Central America
· $27 million allegedly allocated to legal efforts against Trump and other populist figures
Below is one of the new tools for tracking the money flows of 501(c)3 nonprofits:
The image above is too intricate to read here, but the Big Tech + Big Government Collusion 2020 web that Benz described as operating inside the United States years ago is easy to follow, and it bears an eerie similarity:
What Happens Next?
As investigations unfold, expert eyes are watching to see whether these allegations of corruption and fund misuse lead to further reforms in U.S. foreign aid programs.
If this is the “tip of the iceberg” as Sen. Ron Johnson indicated, Musk’s following the money is likely to unveil a host of overseas surprises. Stay tuned to see if some turn up in our nation’s elections, like a paper bag of dog excrement set aflame on our doorstep.
Sources & Further Reading:
· Marco Rubio Explains Why USAID Programs Were Frozen (YouTube)
· USAID Overview (Wikipedia)
· Benny Johnson’s Investigation on USAID (Twitter/X)
· Additional Reports on USAID Spending (Twitter/X)
· Related Commentary from Laura Ingraham (Twitter/X)
· Exposé on Government Influence Operations (Data Republican)
· Intel Agencies Caught in Massive Voter Fraud – Dr. Jerome Corsi (USA
Patrice Johnson, chairs Michigan Fair Elections (MFE) and Pure Integrity Michigan Elections (PIME). A former teacher, Patrice has founded five successful companies and served as senior executive with a Fortune 100 technology company. In 2017, she authored the book, the Fall and Rise of Tyler Johnson, the basis of a PBS documentary film, Finding Tyler. Questions or comments? Contact patrice@mifairelections.org.
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