{"id":244676,"date":"2025-02-22T22:36:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/22\/trump-fixated-on-voter-turnout-funding-for-3rd-day-calls-21-mn-india-aid-a-kickback\/"},"modified":"2025-02-22T22:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T22:36:19","slug":"trump-fixated-on-voter-turnout-funding-for-3rd-day-calls-21-mn-india-aid-a-kickback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/22\/trump-fixated-on-voter-turnout-funding-for-3rd-day-calls-21-mn-india-aid-a-kickback\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump fixated on voter turnout funding for 3rd day, calls $21 mn India aid a &#8216;kickback&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-118470882,imgsize-14640.cms?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Trump fixated on voter turnout funding for 3rd day, calls  mn India aid a &#8216;kickback&#8217;\" title=\"Trump fixated on voter turnout funding for 3rd day, calls  mn India aid a &#8216;kickback&#8217;\" \/><\/div>\n<div data-brcount=\"9\">Former President <a data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/panache\/panache-people-101\/donald-trump\/profileshow\/79057526.cms\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> criticized a cancelled $21 million U.S. aid program for India, alleging it was a &#8220;kickback&#8221; scheme. Speaking at the <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/topic\/republican-governors-association\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Republican Governors Association<\/a> meeting in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Trump questioned the purpose of the funding, which was intended to boost voter turnout in India.<\/p>\n<p><style><![CDATA[\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand p, #stock_pro.onDemand p{font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.28;}\n    \t    .onDemand .live_stock{left:17px;padding:1px 3px 1px 5px;font-size:12px;font-weight:600;line-height:18px;top:9px}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{margin:0 auto 0;}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{color: #024d99;margin-top:10px;}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .crypto .live_stock .lb-icon{8px 6px 5px 3px !important}\n    \t    #sr_widget.crypto.onDemand a.text{border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;padding-bottom:5px;display:block;width:100%}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc .text p, #stock_pro.onDemand .sr_desc .text p{font-size:12px;font-weight:400;}\n    \t]]><\/style>\n<\/p>\n<p><!--\/article_liveblog.cms?msid=105115637&pos=toppotime:1-->&#8220;USD 21 million for voter turnout in India. Why are we caring about India&#8217;s turnout? We have got enough problems. We want our own turnout,&#8221; Trump stated. He expressed suspicion about the program, saying, &#8220;I would say in many cases, many of these cases, anytime you have no idea what we&#8217;re talking about, that means there&#8217;s a kickback because nobody has any idea what&#8217;s going on there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Trump also criticized other cancelled foreign aid programs, including $29 million for Bangladesh&#8217;s &#8220;political landscape,&#8221; $20 million for &#8220;fiscal federalism&#8221; and $19 million for &#8220;biodiversity conservation&#8221; in Nepal, and $47 million for &#8220;improving learning outcomes in Asia.&#8221; He questioned the meaning of these programs and declared, &#8220;We terminated this stuff and we&#8217;re on the track.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by <a data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/panache\/panache-people-101\/elon-musk\/profileshow\/79257472.cms\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a>, recently disclosed the cancelled aid initiatives, noting they were previously administered by USAID. Trump&#8217;s remarks come after DOGE listed the $21 million India program among other cancelled aid projects. USAID, which handles international humanitarian efforts, had its operations halted and website shut down, as part of DOGE&#8217;s government workforce reduction efforts. A judge has temporarily blocked DOGE from placing <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/topic\/usaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USAID<\/a> employees on administrative leave. This marks the third time Trump has publicly questioned the India funding this week, having previously raised concerns during the FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami.<\/p>\n<p><em>With inputs from PTI<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--\/include_growfast.cms?pagename=article&skipcss=1potime:2--><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand p, #stock_pro.onDemand p{font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.28;}\n    \t    .onDemand .live_stock{left:17px;padding:1px 3px 1px 5px;font-size:12px;font-weight:600;line-height:18px;top:9px}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{margin:0 auto 0;}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc{color: #024d99;margin-top:10px;}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .crypto .live_stock .lb-icon{8px 6px 5px 3px !important}\n    \t    #sr_widget.crypto.onDemand a.text{border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;padding-bottom:5px;display:block;width:100%}\n    \t    #sr_widget.onDemand .sr_desc .text p, #stock_pro.onDemand .sr_desc .text p{font-size:12px;font-weight:400;}\n    \t]]><\/style>\n<p><!--\/article_liveblog.cms?msid=105115637&pos=botpotime:1--><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/india\/trump-fixated-on-voter-turnout-funding-for-3rd-day-calls-21-mn-india-aid-a-kickback\/articleshow\/118470882.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump criticized a cancelled $21 million U.S. aid program for India, alleging it was a &#8220;kickback&#8221; scheme. Speaking at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Washington D.C. on Thursday, Trump questioned the purpose of the funding, which was intended to boost voter turnout in India. &#8220;USD 21 million for voter turnout in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-118470882,imgsize-14640.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[190084,2976,41,190086,1187,758,764,1778,178468,2801,273,119654,190085,52,16919,180318,14457,190083],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244678,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244676\/revisions\/244678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}