First Fox: State Department Top Brass question whether working “in charity” should be included in the role of the US government, as the Trump administration reveals a mass of mismanagement and overexpenditure in recent years.
“No one will discuss the philanthropic nature of foreign aid,” Pete Marrocco, director of the State Department’s federal agency, told a group of faith-based organizations on Friday. “So this leads to another question I said before you today. Is it the right role for the government to be in the charity business?”
“If US foreign aid is only 10% of the target goal and the private sector is reaching the right people at 87% of the time, this is a fundamental old question we have to go back and take seriously,” he continued. “It is essential that foreign aid land on the right hand of the right people for the right reasons.”
Marocco’s comments are explained in detail in an Internal State Department memo obtained by Fox News Digital, recreating a meeting between government officials and a group of approximately 25 faith-based organizations.
The “listening session” meeting is only an invitation, and is hosted by Albert T. Govis, acting under a private security, democracy and human rights secretary, and being the director of global criminal justice, Fox Digital learned.
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Pete Marocco in Bogota, Colombia, 2019. (Getty Images)
Government Efficiency Office (DOGE) Chairman Elon Musk and the Trump administration have been fighting for the history of reported overexpenditure and mismanagement of the US International Development Agency in recent weeks. USAID is an independent US institution established under the Kennedy administration to provide economic assistance to foreign countries.
Musk characterizes the institution as “the nest of radical left Marxist vipers who hate America.”
Elon Musk characterized USAID as “the nest of radical left Marxist Vipers who hate America.” (Annabel Gordon/Reuters)
Elon Musk describes the limestone mines used to process federal workers’ retirement papers: “Like Time Warp.”
In January, President Donald Trump issued a near freeze on foreign aid through the agency, terminated thousands of employees and appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting director of the agency.
The payment freeze was hit by lawsuits, and the Supreme Court on Wednesday hit the administration when it rejected a request to block a lower court’s ruling to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid.
In a 5-4 ruling, the judge said the February 26 deadline, which the Trump administration had already expired, had already expired, and directed the district court to clarify additional details regarding the payment.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will speak on February 3, 2025 during a visit to Aeroman, aircraft maintenance company in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador. (Mark Sieferbein/AP)
An internal State Department memo explained to the group of faith-based organizations that the Trump administration “deliberately disrupts the system, identifying and rooting critical issues and explaining them in its foreign aid program.”
“You know, we are currently conducting a review of the US foreign aid program,” the memo said of the director’s opening remarks. “It’s difficult because we take a very different approach to other reviews. Our reviews start from scratch – a zero-based methodology, meaning that we deliberately disrupt the system to identify and root important issues.
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“The truth is: Americans have lost their faith in foreign aid. They have lost their faith in how we perform this job. Nevertheless, today you have a big idea and teach us that foreign aid is optimally effective,” he added.
Trump went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening to deliver his first speech to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House in January. In his speech, Trump celebrated his administration’s immediate suspension of foreign aid.
In a speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Trump celebrated his administration’s suspension of immediate foreign aid. (Aldrago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change that America needs to bring about the future that America deserves. “This is a time of big dreams and bold actions. Once in office, I quickly freeze all federal employment, imposing a freeze on all new federal regulations, a freeze on all foreign aid.”
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The 47th President continued in a speech that Musk and Doge had identified $22 billion in “waste” in various federal agencies, including USAID.
“$4.5 million for Burma’s diversity, equity and comprehensive scholarship,” Trump said rattled various examples of federal waste. “40 million people to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary immigrants. No one knows what it is. 8 million people to promote LGBTQI+ in the Lesotho nation of Africa.
President Donald Trump is working on a joint meeting of the Congress on March 4, 2025. (Ben Curtis/Applications)
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Democrats and government officials are opposed to the Trump administration and the duds’ job of auditing the federal government, and some Democrats even had signs that they had read “Musk Rise” in Trump’s speech on Tuesday.
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
