Bush, Obama Join Forces To Criticize Closing Of USAID By Trump
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Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama joined U2 frontman Bono on Monday to console USAID employees and take some final shots at President Donald Trump after the agency was shut down over fraud and mismanagement.
“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,” Obama said in a video message to outgoing staff, The New York Post reported. “Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.”
He called the move “a colossal mistake” and added, “Sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed.”
Bush, Obama, and Bono all appeared via videoconference to speak directly to USAID staff as the agency was officially shuttered following a federal probe into corruption and abuse. Media were not present, but clips from the event were reviewed by the Associated Press.
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USAID, founded under the Kennedy administration, was created to provide foreign economic aid. But earlier this year, it became one of the first targets of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was established by President Trump to root out government waste. Then-DOGE head Elon Musk slammed the agency as “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”
USAID was officially absorbed by the State Department on Tuesday.
In a rare public rebuke, Bush, who has largely avoided criticizing Trump, said the closure ends a major piece of his presidency—the AIDS and HIV relief initiative that is credited with saving 25 million lives around the world.
“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work—and that is your good heart,” Bush told the staff. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”
Bono read a poem he wrote to mark the end of the agency, claiming it would lead to widespread suffering.
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“They called you crooks. When you were the best of us,” he said.
The Associated Press said Bono and Obama were emotional in their remarks, and Bush stayed focused on legacy. Fox News Digital reached out to both former presidents’ offices but did not receive a response.
Bono already claimed that cutting USAID would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 2016, he slammed Trump as “potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who served as USAID’s acting administrator in its final weeks, announced the State Department would take over all foreign aid functions moving forward.
“Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War,” Rubio said in his announcement.
“Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown.”
“This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end,” he added. “Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests.”
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He said that as of July 1, USAID “will officially cease to implement foreign assistance.”
“Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and which advance American interests—will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency.”
USAID’s closure comes after DOGE led the charge in early 2025 to root out federal waste. Trump has praised DOGE repeatedly, including during a March address to Congress where he celebrated $22 billion in identified waste, including massive spending at USAID.
“Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma,” Trump said, listing examples. “Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is.
“Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender,” he added.
'Guilty Of Fraud' - Hammer Dropped On Former First Lady Jill Biden During Live Fox News Segment
McEnany Accuses Jill Biden Of Misleading Americans About Debate Performance
Posted July 15, 2026
Former White House press secretary and Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany accused former first lady Jill Biden of misleading the American public about President Joe Biden’s condition following his widely criticized debate performance during the 2024 campaign.
McEnany made the remarks Thursday during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” where she reacted to comments Jill Biden reportedly made in her upcoming book regarding the president’s performance during the debate that ultimately intensified questions about his age and fitness for office.
The discussion began when co-host Dana Perino referenced remarks Jill Biden made immediately following the debate.
At a campaign event after the debate, Jill Biden praised her husband’s performance.
“Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question,” she said at the time.
Perino contrasted those comments with more recent claims attributed to Jill Biden and raised questions about the apparent inconsistency.
“So now we know that this is what she’s saying in her book,” Perino said. “And the question I would love to ask her is where are you lying then or now?”
McEnany responded by arguing that Jill Biden’s reaction following the debate was inconsistent with her more recent descriptions of the event.
“It’s a great question,” McEnany said.
“That is not the reaction of someone who believes they just watched their husband have a stroke. It is an absolute lie.”
McEnany then accused the former first lady of concealing concerns about the president’s condition from voters.
“It was fraud,” she said.
“What she did fraud on the American public and she’s continuing it by saying she had never seen him like that before or after.”
The debate between Biden and President Donald Trump became a turning point in the 2024 election cycle, with many Democrats publicly expressing concern about Biden’s performance and his ability to continue his campaign.
Questions about Biden’s age and mental sharpness had circulated for years, but the debate intensified those concerns and fueled calls from some Democrats for him to step aside.
During the Fox News discussion, McEnany referenced comments previously made by veteran journalist Carl Bernstein regarding Biden’s condition behind the scenes.
“Dana, you all remember Carl Bernstein, who said he talked to people who knew Joe Biden, loved Joe Biden, supported Joe Biden, and they were adamant that what we saw was not a one-off,” McEnany said.
According to McEnany, Bernstein reported that individuals close to Biden had observed similar episodes before the debate.
“They said it had happened 15 or 20 times prior, him losing his train of thought,” she said.
McEnany also cited a fundraiser Bernstein reportedly described.
“He described a fundraiser where he froze up and seemed to have some type of rigor mortis,” she said.
“This is not something that was a one-off.”
McEnany argued that concerns about Biden’s condition were widely known among those close to him.
“This was well known,” she said.
She then questioned why Jill Biden continued publicly defending her husband following the debate.
“So why did she keep up with the fraud on the American people?” McEnany asked.
The former first lady has repeatedly defended her husband and rejected claims that she or members of his inner circle concealed concerns about his health, Breitbart News reported.
The debate over Biden’s condition became one of the defining political stories of the 2024 election cycle and continued after he ultimately left the race.
McEnany’s comments reflect ongoing scrutiny surrounding what Biden’s family, advisers and top Democratic officials knew about his condition and when they knew it.
Neither Jill Biden nor representatives for the former president immediately responded to McEnany’s latest remarks.
As new books and accounts from those involved continue to emerge, questions surrounding Biden’s final campaign and the decisions made by those closest to him remain a major topic of political debate.
