Donald, Melania Trump reportedly split on effectiveness of USAID

 February 7, 2025

By this point in Donald Trump's second term, you may have heard what he thinks about the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Our president has not been shy about calling the agency a "tremendous fraud."

Could this be something that puts the relationship between Melania and Donald Trump to the test?

Donald Trump's comments certainly represent a difference from the opinion his wife has expressed about USAID in the past.

Mrs. Trump has worked with USAID before, and she had nothing but praise for the organization.

"We care, and we want to show the world that we care, and I've partnered and am working with USAID," Melania Trump said in 2018. "And that's what I want to share -- that we care."

"It's really touching," she said once while on a trip in collaboration with a USAID literacy program. "I'm glad that I'm here to see in person what the children are going through, and [see that] they're educating them in the right way."

Donald Trump's White House doesn't share the same opinion to which Mrs. Trump gave voice back in 2018. Her husband thinks the organization is running rampant with fraud, and he wants to do something about it.

"For decades … USAID has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous -- and, in many cases, malicious -- pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight," the White House said in a recent memo.