USAID, Western trojan horses, and the state of democracy in Global South – Firstpost

The 2024 US elections were perhaps the most riveting of any elections in recent history across the world. There were last-minute changes in presidential candidates, assassination attempts, heated debates, and a society that was politically split right through the middle. The nail-biting run-up to the results had news channels such as MSNBC and CNN making “razor-thin margin” predictions, albeit favouring the Harris-led Democrats. However, in the end, it was a clear mandate in support of Donald J Trump.

The result was certainly not a landslide victory, but Trump did win the popular vote by 3.2 million votes, becoming the first Republican in nearly two decades to do so. The aftermath for the Democrat-leaning channels was an immediate drop in viewership. MSNBC lost a staggering 53 per cent of its viewers, while CNN lost about 43 per cent. Republican-tilting Fox News, on the other hand, retained its viewers.

Furthermore, “Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, who led scathing criticism against Trump even suggesting he was a fascist, met with him at his Mar-a-Lago retreat immediately after the results were announced. Their viewership dipped further the next day. The credibility crisis that Democratic Party-supporting news channels and influencers faced was predictable considering that 2016 and 2020 election projections were way off the mark as well.

However, while it was apparent that the results had led to the dilution of positive public perception and integrity of news channels, pollsters, and influencers alike, the debacle today seems minuscule compared to the revelations that have confronted the American taxpayer.

The crackdown by the Trump administration on international spending of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has created headlines for misusing taxpayer money. USAID, as the acronym suggests, is the financial aid arm of US foreign policy aimed at supporting international development and humanitarian efforts, except their spending has prompted outrage across the world. If the average American voter was disappointed at MSNBC and CNN election predictions that followed the high-voltage rhetoric against Trump, USAID spending has now cast a doubt on the integrity of the Democratic Party itself.

The alleged $8 million spent on the popular media outlet POLITICO was the first of USAID media spending to be exposed. This information was followed by the Associated Press having received over $500,000, Reuters over $9 million, and the New York Times receiving over $3.2 million. Funding media outlets was not limited to those that operated in the US but across the world. The BBC, which is funded by the British taxpayer, received over $3 million from USAID, which included building a “media ecosystem” in Libya.

In Cuba, $1.5 million was given for “media rebuilding”, and in Iraq an astonishing $20 million was disbursed for Elmo, Big Bird, and Abby of Sesame Street to be made into local Iraqi versions. Not only did the Democrats use the media for narrative building in their favour, but with new evidence coming out, it is likely that they used USAID funding to target political competition. The Russia-gate and Ukraine-gate scandals caused considerable political turmoil in the US, leading to impeachment charges against Trump. The allegations were supported by information provided by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Irrespective of the inputs given by OCCRP, it has now come to light that the major investigative journalism organisation received $20 million in US funding, almost half its entire annual budget. Mike Benz, former state department cyber expert and presently Executive Director of Foundation of Freedom Online (FFO), recently tweeted asking, ‘Why did USAID pay $20 million to hit-piece journalists to dig up dirt on Rudy Giuliani and use that dirt as the basis to impeach the sitting US President in 2019?’. Not surprisingly, OCCRP claims to be nonpartisan and independent.

But was USAID money used only to influence media narratives and political hit jobs in the US? Clearly not. USAID was the Trojan horse that the world refused to acknowledge. The difference being this Trojan was not carrying Achaeans’ best warriors or Odysseus himself, who crept out in the dark of the night to destroy the city of Troy.

This Trojan horse carried the potent currency that blinded the whole world in broad daylight. Many succumbed to the stratagem, but many willingly accepted the handouts. As the American novelist Gore Vidal said, “As nothing is free, to each his price.”

With a budget of nearly $50 billion, more than the combined budget of the CIA and the State Department, their reach is limitless. Therefore, one of the largest recipients of USAID was Internews, an organisation that trains and supports journalists and promotes internet freedom, which received the largest payout of any media outlet, a staggering $400 million.In India, they claim to have trained over 70,000 activists, journalists, and students.

Surely, some of the hit jobs on PM Modi can be owed to the “training” that was imparted to Indian activists and journalists. The $175 million that came into India in 2023 is more than enough to “buy” the influence the Democrats wanted in India. In neighbouring Bangladesh too, USAID supported student bodies and activists and pushed for regime change, bringing in an illegal interim government. The forced change in dispensation spiralled the country into chaos and violence, destabilising the entire region.

In Nepal, funding was disbursed to spread atheism; in Bolivia, to support opposition parties; in Peru, they were accused of forced sterilisation drives to reduce birth rates amongst indigenous communities; and in Brazil, grants were given for political reforms. The list of absurd spending is endless.

But USAID is not the only Trojan horse; British International Investment, the foreign aid arm overseen by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO), invested in a walk-in daycare surgery that restructured into a cosmetic surgery clinic in India. They continued the funding for nearly eight years after the transition of the clinic. FCDO spent $2.6 million on climate justice in India. EU AID gave nearly Euro 250,000 ($260,890) to an organisation in Manipur during the conflict it faced in 2023-2024. Members of the European Parliament also took out an emergency resolution against the handling of the conflict by the Government of India while fallaciously suggesting it was a conflict between two communities of different religions.

USAID is the most powerful Trojan horse amongst many Trojan horses sitting in the Global South. Fortunately, USAID’s future looks bleak, saving many nations from Western international interference. However, while it is the moral responsibility of Western nations to check their political manipulations in other countries, it is incumbent on the recipient countries themselves to refuse handouts or at least responsibly ensure that they are not misused. Sovereign nations must start exercising their sovereignty; if not, all we will have is the legends that will haunt us, just like the legend of the great city of Troy.

Rami Niranjan Desai is an anthropologist and a scholar of the northeast region of India. She is a columnist and author and presently Distinguished Fellow at India Foundation, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.