Podcast host Joe Rogan justified President Donald Trump and Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) chair Elon Musk’s decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on his show Thursday over its wasteful spending on left-wing causes.
Democrats have screeched over Trump and Musk’s decision to close the agency by threatening to conduct a “hostile takeover” by setting “fire” to the Republican Party. Rogan argued that the agency has poured billions of dollars into “crazy sh*t,” particularly left-wing and LGBTQ causes overseas, and called out the left-wing media for failing to mention these details.
“I don’t think I really grasped it until Elon’s six wizards, they brought in some young wizards to go in there and go in the books and they are just finding crazy sh*t!” Rogan said. “It’s crazy and it’s so interesting, I was listening to a left-wing podcast today — I like to mix it up, you know, I listen to all kinds of different stuff and it was like I was listening to a different world — they weren’t even talking about all this corruption and all this obvious buying of influence. Instead, they were talking about aid overseas and how people are gonna starve.”
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The notable podcaster criticized the left-wing media for “ignoring” the details of what USAID is spending money on and only focus on the good causes the agency had aided.
“It’s very strange that the media’s ignoring it, especially the left-wing media,” Rogan continued. “It’s just too much of a win for the right, and so they’re just ignoring it and then they’re just highlighting the good things that USAID did, which I’m sure they probably did. Probably had to do some good things to at least justify its existence.”
USAID spent $1.5 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean LGBTQ-related causes, including handing over a $2 million grant to Guatemala in order for the country to fund sex change operations and engage in LGBTQ activism. The agency further spent $17 billion on foreign aid to Ukraine and sent 65.5 million condoms, over 9 million injectable birth control products and over 300,000 IUDs abroad in the fiscal year 2022.
During his Wednesday show, Rogan praised Musk for taking a “business approach” to the government by reducing it in size and tackling the “massive amounts of corruption” they have found within several federal agencies, including USAID.
“What’s fascinating right now is we’re getting a chance to see what happens when you take a business approach to the government in the White House,” Rogan said. “We’re seeing right now with this whole USAID thing where they’re uncovering massive amounts of corruption and waste and and just a lot of weird shady shit with NGOs and where an enormous amount of money is going, and you’re seeing someone look at this thing that is incredibly efficient, almost by design. And instead of saying like, well, this is just how it is and this is how these politicians get funded, so let’s just keep this thing going the same way it is and make some incremental changes to try to make people happy so we still get elected.”
President Donald Trump appointed Musk to lead DOGE in order to fulfill his campaign promise to cut wasteful federal spending. Musk, who has been a frequent critic of USAID, called for the agency to be shut down on Monday and informed staff to work remotely before notifying them that they would be placed on leave Friday. Trump appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to be acting director at the agency.
Democratic congress members gathered in front of the Department of Treasury building on Tuesday where they shrieked about the closing of USAID. Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters went on a four minute tirade about her hatred for Musk’s position in the government, while Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley threatened to set “fire” to the Republican Party and called Musk a “Nazi nutball baby” and a “godless, lawless billionaire.”
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Rep. Robert Garcia: “Every single time that Elon Musk and his DOGE crew try to go to another agency, we got to be there–at the agency–stop them, and tell them ‘hell no’.” pic.twitter.com/gE0oApQ8u2
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 5, 2025
Some Democratic strategists, including Obama-era adviser David Axelrod, warned the party to stop staunchly defending USAID and foreign aid as Democrats are struggling to gain support among working class voters.
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