On today’s show: The speed at which Trump and Elon Musk have dismantled USAID has shocked people on both sides of the aisle. The Atlantic’s Russell Berman explains why. Trump’s new budget chief was previously one of the architects of Project 2025. Politico White House reporter Megan Messerly discusses how, despite Trump’s repeated disavowal of the controversial policy plan during the campaign, we’re already seeing much of it unfolding. Worries over bird flu are growing after the deaths of several birds at New York City zoos. NBC News reports on the precautions being taken. NPR also reports on why bird flu is affecting prices of eggs but not, for example, chicken wings. Plus, Trump announced new tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl LIX champions, and Kendrick Lamar’s triumphant halftime performance.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Monday, February 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, a key architect of Project 2025 has a big role in Trump's cabinet. Why Super Bowl chicken wings are cheap as egg prices skyrocket. And a night the Chiefs and Drake may never recover from.
But first, President Trump on Sunday gave an interview with Fox News' Brett Baier and discussed Elon Musk's efforts to cut back on what they see as government waste.
I told him do that. Then I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going to go to the military. Let's check the military. We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that.
So far, Trump and Musk have moved to freeze most foreign aid for 90 days and reduce USAID's workforce of 10,000-plus to around 600 people. On Friday afternoon, a district judge nominated by Trump temporarily halted those plans until a hearing later this week. But that didn't stop the Trump administration from sending crews over to the agency headquarters to remove their name from the building.
As we've mentioned on this show before, USAID provides about 40 percent of the world's humanitarian aid. While some conservatives have grown increasingly critical of sending American aid abroad, The Atlantic's Russell Berman told us people on both sides of the aisle have been surprised.
So the speed with which Donald Trump and Elon Musk are dismantling USAID has been shocking to supporters and critics, pretty much everyone. And there have been attempts over the years to either reduce or to abolish USAID in the past. What Trump is doing is going way beyond even the most conservative or most aggressive proposals that were made for USAID.
Musk, in his role as chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, has referred to USAID as a criminal organization and said that he was, quote, feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Last week, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt listed some examples of expenditures by USAID that she says prove that it's full of waste and corruption.
These are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on. $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces. $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland. $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia. $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. I don't know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don't want my dollars going towards this crap.
The Washington Post and PolitiFact have fact-checked those claims. It is true that USAID provided $1.5 million to a group in Serbia to reduce discrimination against the country's LGBTQ community, but the $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland is false. That grant came from the State Department, not USAID, and it went toward a music festival, not a musical, to, quote, promote the U.S.
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