Donald Trump on USAID: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday canceled the $2.1 billion funding approved by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to improve voter turnout in India. Given India’s economic growth and high tariffs, Trump questioned why India needed such financial assistance. The Indian Express has reported on this.
“Why are we giving India $21 million? They have a lot of money. They are one of the highest-taxing countries in the world compared to us; we can’t get there because their taxes are so high. I have a lot of respect for India and their Prime Minister, but why are we giving India $21 million for voter turnout?” Trump said after signing the executive orders at Mar-a-Lago.
Funds for Bangladesh and Nepal were also withheld. DOGE, which was established under the Trump administration to oversee and reduce government spending, stated that it had decided to cut $72.3 million in foreign aid as part of a broader budget overhaul. The cuts include $21 million in grants for India and $29 million allocated to strengthening the political situation in Bangladesh. The department emphasized that all spending cuts were part of a larger effort to eliminate unnecessary expenditures.
India’s Criticism
Economist Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, criticized the US position. He said, “I would like to know who received the $21 million supposedly spent on improving voter turnout in India and the $29 million allocated to ‘strengthening the political situation’ in Bangladesh. There is also no information on the $29 million supposedly used for improving ‘economic federalism’ in Nepal. USAID is the biggest scam in human history.”
Apart from Sanyal, former Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Qureshi also criticized the US stance. He denied reports that the US had provided funds to increase voter turnout in India. He said, “There are claims that in 2012, when I was the Chief Election Commissioner, the Election Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with an American agency for a few crores of dollars to increase voter numbers in India. However, there is no truth to this report.”
