US Senator John Kennedy has claimed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded a transgender clinic in India amid President Donald Trump's crackdown on the aid agency. Elon Musk responded with a "wow" over Kennedy informing the Capitol about the discoveries made by the billionaire's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on USAID.
In his speech at the Capitol, Kennedy, a Republican, asserted that USAID funded a transgender clinic in India by utilizing American taxpayers' money.
"USAID gave money to support electric vehicles in Vietnam with our taxpayers' money. USAID gave money to a transgender clinic in India. I didn't know that. I bet the American people didn't know that. Musk also found that USD 1.5 million was given to Serbian LGBT organizations. They got the money to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbian workplaces and business communities," Kennedy said.
"USAID spent USD 164 million to support radical organizations around the world. Of that, they gave USD 122 million to groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations. USAID gave millions of dollars to crooked organizations in Gaza," he added.
Kennedy's claim on transgender clinic in India is in line with the Trump administration's crackdown on gender-sensitive causes, including the scrapping of anti-discrimination protections and courses on gender and race in schools.
It also came days after Republican Representative Nancy Mace questioned the USD 750,000 grant by USAID to an NGO linked to actor Sonam Kapoor's brother-in-law Anant Ahuja for "alleviating loneliness among migrant workers in India".
Speaking on USAID funding by the US House Oversight Committee on February 5, Mace said, "USAID awarded over USD 750,000 to fund alleviating loneliness among migrant garment workers in India. Does this advance America's interests, Governor?" To this, the Governor replied, "No, I have no position."
In 2020, the grant was awarded to Good Business Lab Foundation, which was co-founded by Anant Ahuja, the younger brother of actor Sonam Kapoor's husband, Anand Ahuja. According to the Good Business Lab Foundation website, 33-year-old Anant Ahuja is an organizational development leader.
The Good Business Lab Foundation partnered with six factories owned by Shahi Exports, India's largest exporter of ready-made garments, to "build off prior pilots to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a low-cost mental health intervention that pairs 1,000 female junior factory workers with female senior workers".
Trump has called for the shutdown of USAID after Elon Musk-led DOGE, formed to slash federal spending, launched a probe of the aid agency to ensure judicious use of taxpayers' money. Musk had also called the agency a "criminal organisation".
USAID is the US government's largest humanitarian arm and has around 10,000 workers, with an annual budget amounting to billions. The agency is guided by the US State Department over foreign policies and its budget is approved every year by Congress.
In an interview on Sunday, Trump reiterated the "fraud of hundreds of millions of dollars" in USAID, saying it was a "big scam".
"You take a look at USAID, the kind of fraud in there. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that's going to places where it shouldn't be going. It's crazy. It's a big scam," he said in a pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News's Brett Baier.
Trump's remarks came after a court on Friday temporarily paused his administration's move to shut down USAID and put 2,200 of the agency's workers on paid leave.
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