Democrats are really up in arms over the exposure of USAID and its expenditures on progressive initiatives overseas and here in America. Rep. Chip Roy's office featured some of them on Monday, including DEI scholarships in Burma and diversity initiatives in Serbia. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also detailed some of the "crap" getting our money, including $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru and $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia. How those advance American interests we can't say.
"Republicans seized" on the transgender opera in Colombia, but some reporters are saying that the opera didn't receive a dime from USAID.
NEW: While highlighting waste and fraud in USAID, the WH and Republicans have pointed to a “transgender opera” in Colombia.
— Katherine Swartz (@kv_swartz) February 5, 2025
The only issue: that opera didn’t receive a dime from USAID. https://t.co/ROyJTFcbjN
Well, that's a relief and how it should be.
Katherine Swartz reports for NOTUS that the opera Leavitt pointed to was instead funded through the Department of State in 2021:
When the Trump administration wanted to call attention to wasteful spending at the U.S. Agency for International Development on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt singled out a $47,000 line item for a “transgender opera in Colombia.” The only problem? USAID didn’t fund the production.
The opera Leavitt pointed to was instead funded through the Department of State in 2021. The Universidad De Los Andes in Bogotá received $25,000 under a State Department’s public diplomacy program, allocated for “expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.”
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Those inconvenient facts haven’t stopped Republicans from running with the claim after Leavitt highlighted “fraud, waste and abuse” at USAID by, in part, singling out the opera.
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The opera, “As One,” premiered in 2014 and has been staged 60 times across the world in the last decade. The chamber opera was composed by Laura Kaminsky and focuses on the journey of Hannah, a transgender woman, as she navigates childhood and college.
So the State Department was burning our taxpayer money on transgender opera in Colombia, not USAID. That makes it so much better. Swartz reports that new Secretary of State Marco Rubio is looking to cut waste, and "even more ominously, Elon Musk said on Saturday night that he’d spoken to Trump and the president agreed the agency should be shut down."
USAID didn't fund the 'transgender opera' in 2021. Instead, it was the State Department who sent $25,000 in tax dollars to the Colombian thespians. https://t.co/Suw8V1FHpv
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) February 5, 2025
— Sour Patch Lyds (@sourpatchlyds) February 5, 2025
Isn’t the more important point that it was intended for that purpose in the first place? If they were willing to send money for that, what other unnecessary things did our money fund? Instead of splitting hairs, you should dig deeper into that.
— Michael Butler 🇺🇸 (@MDButler81) February 5, 2025
That’s the point. It’s money laundering
— Ryan (@Godandfreedom11) February 5, 2025
Maybe the entire US Government should stop sending any money to Colombia? 🤔💰
— CoolCzech (@CoolCzech1) February 5, 2025
It’s actually becoming quite comical at this point watching people trying to defend this abuse of our dollars. It wasn’t A. It did happen, but it was B.
— Vicki (@scvic_travels) February 5, 2025
Gee that makes it so much better....
— Kevin Boyd 🇺🇸 (@TheKevinBoyd) February 5, 2025
To be fair, we wanted the the Colombian transgender thespians on our side before the Chinese could get there
— InfiniteJest (@InfiniteJestHDW) February 5, 2025
It was vital to our national security.
So then "where did the money go" should be your next question.
— Pags 🇺🇸 (@bigdog0668) February 5, 2025
We'll all sleep easier knowing that it was the State Department that was funding an transgender opera in Colombia. Audit State next.
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