Zakir Hossain / Dhaka
US President Donald Trump has said the $29 million USAID fund granted to Bangladesh for strengthening the political landscape went to a firm that nobody ever heard of.
“[They] got $29 million. They got a cheque. Can you imagine you have a little firm, you get $10,000 here, $10,000 there. And then we get $29 million from the United States government. They had two people working in that firm,” he said on Friday (February 21).
“Two people … I think they are very happy. They are very rich. They will be on the cover of a very good business magazine pretty soon for being great scammers,” Trump said during his speech. The US president made the remarks while addressing the Governors Working Session at the White House in Washington, DC.
On 16 February, the US president’s cost-cutting team, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), posted on X listing the names of 11 countries and specific names of some of the US-funded overseas projects that had been cancelled. The list included a $29 million project for “strengthening political landscape” in Bangladesh and another for “voter turnout” in India. “US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all of which have been cancelled,” read the DOGE post.
According to the Democracy International website, the Strengthening Political Landscape in Bangladesh program (SPL), funded by USAID and DFID, works to build political party capacity and strengthen relationships between parties and constituents while reducing political violence. It says the duration of the project was from 2017 to 2024.