When Joe Biden's USAID wasn't bankrolling terror-tied organizations in the Middle East, it was spending billions on left-wing priorities like "environmental justice" and "LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development." Secretary of State Marco Rubio used the Trump administration's 90-day pause on foreign aid to review "all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy." You’ll never believe what happened next.
An internal department memo obtained by our Adam Kredo indicates that, of more than 9,100 grants reviewed—worth an estimated $15.9 billion—4,100 of those grants worth approximately $4.4 billion are now slated for elimination.
The proposed cuts were more pronounced at USAID, where Trump administration officials moved to slash 5,800 grants valued at $54 billion, marking a 92 percent reduction in USAID's multi-year grant spending, according to the memo.
"The 'exhaustive' review," writes Kredo, "reflects the monumental changes underway at USAID under Trump." Some of them, to be sure, are the subject of ongoing court battles. Rubio picked up a win on that front Wednesday night, when the Supreme Court temporarily blocked an order that would have compelled the administration to make nearly $2 billion in taxpayer-funded foreign aid payments.
As Rubio moves forward, he's pledging to "reform the way the United States delivers foreign assistance" following "decades of institutional drift." His memo identifies three principles in doing so:
"Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safe? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?"
At the Washington Post, billionaire owner and Free Beacon Man of the Year Jeff Bezos is making moves.
On Wednesday, Bezos sent a memo to staff outlining a new vision for the Post's opinion section centered on two sturdy pillars: "personal liberties and free markets." The section will cover other topics, wrote Bezos, but "viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others." In other words, get in line or get out.
Post opinion editor David Shipley chose the latter option, declining to "lead this new chapter" after "careful consideration," Bezos announced. Others are likely to follow suit, if their reactions are any indication.
Economics reporter Jeff Stein, for example, "slammed Bezos's pro-freedom remarks as a 'massive encroachment' on the opinion section" even as he "acknowledged that Bezos has never interfered with his reporting," the Free Beacon's Andrew Stiles writes. "Philip Bump, one of several openly Democratic columnists at the Post, had a more succinct reaction. 'What the actual fuck,' he wrote on Bluesky, the social media app for obnoxious liberals."
"Karen Attiah, the Post columnist who was recently confronted at a book event in Washington, D.C., over her sympathy for Hamas terrorists, had this to say about working for a boss who wants to promote freedom and other American values: 'Deep breaths.' Attiah, who defended the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack as a justified attempt at 'decolonization,' was particularly outraged after Bezos barred the editorial board from endorsing Harris, calling it an 'absolute stab in the back' and an 'insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy.'" Attiah didn't resign then. If she does now, we'll have no choice but to make Lord Bezos a Man of the Year all over again.
READ MORE: Journalists Outraged After WaPo Owner Endorses Freedom
Speaking of obnoxious journalists, CNN's Jake Tapper announced his new book on Wednesday. It isn't a self-help guide on how to survive a sworn deposition in the midst of a defamation lawsuit. Instead, it's on "President Biden's decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again."
Tapper's co-author is Alex Thompson, the Axios reporter who emerged as perhaps the only mainstream journalist willing to pursue stories on Old Joe's dementia-addled brain before Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer gave their media allies the green light to pile on. Tapper handled things differently, running cover for Biden's frequent gaffes by blaming them on the octogenarian's childhood stutter.
In one now-infamous exchange, Tapper lambasted Lara Trump for daring to make the claim that Biden was displaying a "cognitive decline."
"How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?" he said in a 2020 interview. "I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline."
Biden spent the following years wandering aimlessly around stages and confusing world leaders, but Tapper stood firm. When Biden, for example, used his 2022 State of the Union address to argue that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would "never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people," Tapper described the performance as "solid" given Biden’s speaking "challenges." Years later, in March 2024, Tapper said Biden "embraces his stutter, talking about it, while Trump mocks it, exaggerates it, belittles it."
Biden himself said the opposite in 2019, telling Axios, "Look, the mistakes I make are mistakes. And some people think I still stutter. I don't think of myself that way."
Watch the Tapper lowlight reel here.
Away from the Beacon:
- Gavin Newsom launched a new podcast on Wednesday, pledging to tackle "all your big questions." Dave Portnoy quickly posed one we're hoping Newsom addresses: "Why did you throw a party for yourself at the French Laundry with no masks on in the middle of Covid when California had just about the strictest COVID regs in the country and thousands of small businesses were going outta business because of said policies?"
- Monica Lewinsky went on Call Her Daddy, the podcast best known for interviewing Kamala Harris on a makeshift set that reportedly cost the veep's campaign $100,000. "The best way to handle a situation like that," Lewinsky said of Slick Willy, "would have been to probably say it was nobody's business, and to resign."