Former Official (unnamed)
Appearances
The Dan Bongino Show
The Liberal Meltdown Means They're Guilty In This Scandal (Ep. 2420)
Unfortunately, I think so. And we very much the president is right. He's setting the pace. And he is also correct that American taxpayers deserve to know exactly how and where their money is spent. The fact that I have to commit, Maria, to an audit being done in four years is bad enough. The Pentagon should be able to pass a budget right now.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Liberal Meltdown Means They're Guilty In This Scandal (Ep. 2420)
Thankfully, the Marine Corps has passed a clean audit for two years in a row, and I applaud them. But that needs to go across the entire department. So that will be a focus. Where we spend dollars, we need to know – when we spend dollars, we need to know where they're going and why. That's simple accounting, and that has not existed at the Defense Department. We're going to fix that.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Liberal Meltdown Means They're Guilty In This Scandal (Ep. 2420)
But that's not even Doge. I mean, we welcome Elon Musk and Doge coming into our department to help us identify – additional ways in which we can streamline processes, fast-track acquisitions, cut waste, cut tail to put it to tooth.
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump’s Most Important Fight To Date (Ep. 2415)
Well, look, I mean, my frustration with USAID goes back to my time in Congress. It's a completely unresponsive agency. It's supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department and it refuses to do so.
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump’s Most Important Fight To Date (Ep. 2415)
So the functions of USAID, there are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy. I said very clearly during my confirmation hearing that every dollar we spend and every program we fund, that will be aligned with the national interest of the United States.
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump’s Most Important Fight To Date (Ep. 2415)
And USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that and deciding that there's somehow a global charity separate from the national interest. These are taxpayer dollars.
The Dan Bongino Show
Biden Is Destroying The Country On His Way Out (Ep. 2402)
Senator, with regard to that instance in our first term, we were specifically using the transfer authority that had been provided in the language of the Department of Defense Appropriations to be able to transfer that authority to the Army Corps of Engineers for its use on the border wall.
The Dan Bongino Show
Biden Is Destroying The Country On His Way Out (Ep. 2402)
It was specifically a transfer authority that Congress had given the President in the underlying appropriation.