‘It’s a lie. Pure and simple’: Kevin Rudd’s office bluntly rejects USAid claims circulating online
Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador in Washington DC, has hit back at “fake” claims an institute he once led received money from USAid, the US foreign aid agency being targeted by Donald Trump.
The office of Rudd, a former Australian prime minister and current ambassador to the US, has issued a statement seeking to dispel claims circulating online suggesting Rudd and the Asia Society – where he has held various roles since 2015 – benefitted financially from USAid.
“We’ve seen posts claiming Kevin Rudd received money from the US Agency for Int’l Development in 2022,” Rudd’s former prime ministerial office wrote in a statement posted to X on Saturday (Australia time).
“It’s a fake. USAid doesn’t fund Kevin Rudd or Asia Society. Nor did Asia Society receive any USAid funding during Dr Rudd’s period as president,” the post said.
“It’s a lie. Pure and simple,” it said.
The Asia Society is an organisation with several wings broadly focused on educating the world about Asia, and includes a thinktank, and educational and fundraising arms.
Rudd was the CEO and president of the Asia Society from 2021 to 2023, and before that, he was president of the society’s thinktank from 2015.
The Guardian has contacted Rudd’s Queensland-based office for comment.
The statement follows an outcry from US government workers in recent days after the announcement of major cuts to USAid since president Trump took office.
The gutting of USAid has largely been overseen by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally, who is spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
On Monday, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his employees “spent the weekend feeding USAid into the wood chipper”.
The agency’s website now states that, as of midnight on Friday (Saturday AEDT), “all USAid direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs”.
The Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 employees, out of more than 10,000, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
A lawsuit filed against the Trump administration in recent days over the cutting of USAid funding said the “collapse” of the agency “has had disastrous humanitarian consequences”, including shutting down efforts to fight malaria and HIV.
With AAP
