New Delhi: In a recent address at the FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami, Florida, US President Donald Trump sparked controversy by questioning the allocation of $21 million by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support voter turnout efforts in India. Trump’s remarks, made on Thursday, suggested that the funding might have been an attempt to influence India’s election outcomes.
Trump’s comments came on the heels of a disclosure by the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, which revealed that the $21 million funding for India had been cancelled. The DOGE, established as a cost-cutting initiative, listed the $21 million allocation for voter turnout in India among several other international projects that were scrapped due to alleged wasteful expenditure.
“Why do we need to spend $21 million on voter turnout in India? I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected. We have got to tell the Indian Government… This is a total breakthrough,” Trump stated, drawing parallels with concerns over Russian interference in US elections. He also highlighted India’s high tax rates and stringent tariffs, questioning the rationale behind providing such significant funding.
Trump’s remarks were part of a broader critique of the Biden administration’s foreign aid policies. On Tuesday, while signing executive orders at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had expressed similar concerns, saying, “Why are we giving $21 million to India? They got a lot of money. They are one of the highest taxing countries in the world in terms of us; we can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high.”
The cancellation of the USAID funding is part of DOGE’s efforts to cut down on what it deems as wasteful government spending. Other projects that were scrapped include $29 million for strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh and $39 million for fiscal federalism and biodiversity conservation in Nepal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India has reacted strongly to the revelation, accusing the opposition Congress party of benefiting from foreign interference. BJP leader Amit Malviya linked the initiative to George Soros, a financier often accused of meddling in domestic politics, and pointed to a 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between the Election Commission of India and The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), an organization associated with Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
Trump’s administration has been aggressive in its cost-cutting measures, with the DOGE claiming to have saved over $55 billion in less than a month. The elimination of USAID, which was responsible for humanitarian efforts globally, is a significant part of these measures.
