By Mariane Angela, Daily Caller News Foundation | February 11, 2025
Victor Davis Hanson said Monday on Fox News it’s “ironic how the left globally imposes out-of-mainstream values,” criticizing the U.S. government’s funding cuts to international programs that he argues promote ideological agendas under the guise of aid.
In an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Hanson talked about what he said were contradictions in contemporary government policies, including recent cuts by the Department of Education to 29 DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) training grants totaling $101 million. These programs, Hanson said, were not only unnecessary and possibly unlawful but also a manifestation of what he described as 19th-century cultural imperialism.
“I think a lot of the receiving countries may not be as angry at being cut off as we think, because it’s very ironic the left turned out to be 19th century cultural imperialists that were trying to impose their own values way out of the mainstream on these traditional societies that resented that,” Hanson said. “And the money mostly went to elites anyway, that they never saw much of it.”
Hanson said he was also taken aback by revelations that went largely unnoticed until now, such as the significant amount of money funneled to questionable programs overseas.
“I think they understand that they cannot defend these expenditures. They’re corrupt. They’re unnecessary. Many of them are probably unlawful, so they go on offense and call Elon Musk names. I was shocked that we were told, Laura, for the last four years that Big Deal Anthony Fauci only routed $600,000 to Wuhan through Echo Health. It couldn’t have mattered at all. They knew the entire time that USAID was putting $40 million into the Wuhan laboratory in China,” Hanson said.
“Samantha Power came out and said, ‘The Chinese are going to be so happy that we’re cutting all of these USAID programs.’ You know, they’re very angry because they’re not getting $40 million for their lab.”
Hanson also commented on the role of Elon Musk, who has criticized wasteful government spending.
“They keep saying Elon Musk, Elon Musk, he doesn’t have a statutory role in actually making the cuts. He’s an auditor. He just goes through. He says these are the things that we find wasteful, and then the president, either himself or through his cabinet officers, makes the actual cuts, and they know that. And it’s just a lie, and we’ve seen it before with informal advisors,” Hanson said.
Drawing historical parallels, Hanson compared Musk’s advisory role to that of Harry Hopkins under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“Harry Hopkins under FDR, he moved into the White House and advised Roosevelt every day. No one thought that he was an insurrectionist,” Hanson added.
The Trump administration announced plans to significantly reduce the federal workforce, starting with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This decision follows revelations of financial mismanagement and the promotion of far-left ideologies globally within the agency. Following Musk’s announcement, he said that USAID would shut down after resisting a Department of Government Efficiency audit. Democratic members of Congress protested outside the USAID and Treasury Department headquarters on Tuesday.
Mariane Angela is a news reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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