CIA’s secret grip on USAID is finally exposed — what happens next?

The Hill reported last week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would cancel 83% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s programs — a total of 5,200 contracts — “essentially capping a dramatic fall for the foreign aid organization under the Trump administration.” Rubio also expressly thanked the Department of Government Efficiency and “his staff who ‘worked very long hours’ to achieve the reform for USAID.”

As with the Watergate scandal that ended the Nixon administration, uncovering corruption often requires following the money. To borrow a phrase frequently used by Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, “This is much worse than Watergate.”

Cutting, trimming, and restructuring the CIA is off to a good start, but it’s far from complete.

In my recent book, “Twilight of the Shadow Government: How Transparency Will Kill the Deep State,” coauthored with Kevin Shipp, a former CIA officer turned whistleblower, we examine the agency’s malign influence on American politics. From manipulating financial interests to shaping media narratives, the CIA’s reach extends far beyond intelligence gathering. We explore historical programs like Operation Mockingbird, which paid journalists to plant stories, and more recent efforts such as the seemingly benign “Center for Global Engagement.”

USAID has long operated as a cutout for the CIA, providing cover for the agency to expand its influence abroad. Through USAID, the agency builds what it calls “capacity” in foreign countries, whether by establishing controlled media outlets or funding so-called charitable organizations. Cutting 83% of USAID’s budget systematically dismantles the agency’s ability to extend its reach into these nations.

Ultimately, we propose 12 steps to reform the CIA, beginning with a crucial first move: breaking through the agency’s unconstitutional shield of secrecy and taking control of its hidden budget.

CIA’s shadowy origins

When President Harry Truman created the CIA in 1947, he intended it to serve as an intelligence-gathering body — essentially a daily briefing service for the president. But the agency’s first director, Allen Dulles, had a much broader vision. During World War II, Dulles attempted to negotiate a separate peace with Nazi Germany, aiming to install SS chief Heinrich Himmler as Adolf Hitler’s successor. Fortunately, that plan never succeeded.

Dulles’ machinations continued, however. He brushed aside the concerns of presidents like Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, overthrowing countries under the pretense of stopping communist revolutions. Even Truman became concerned, famously publishing an op-ed in the Washington Postin December 1963 urging President Lyndon Johnson to remove the CIA’s ability to engage in covert operations.

What were once left-wing positions in the 1960s and 1970s now form the core philosophy of the Trump administration, attracting figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Elon Musk. The key to understanding today’s crisis isn’t just exposing corrupt individuals — whether Allen Dulles, John Brennan, or James Clapper — but dismantling the system that enables them to gain and wield power.

Reining in corruption

Musk plays a crucial role in this effort. Corruption and wrongdoing exist in all groups, but the real challenge is minimizing harm. The solution is transparency. Information must be brought into the open so the public can make informed decisions — whether to reject or accept those in power.

The daily news cycle provides various examples of the transparency promised by Trump and Musk, whether Musk inadvertently tries to sell a secret CIA facility in Northern Virginia or a purge of recently hired CIA officers.

Cutting, trimming, and restructuring the CIA is off to a good start, but it’s far from complete.

To solidify these gains over a rogue agency, Congress must establish effective oversight of the CIA for the first time. Lawmakers who have passed rigorous security investigations must be allowed to delve into the agency’s operations, and the CIA must stop overclassifying relevant information under the excuse of “state secrets.”

We need a strong intelligence service to provide reliable information to our president. But we also need an intelligence service that is subservient to the civilian government and does not, as President John Quincy Adams once warned, venture “abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”

We must stop the forever wars abroad and the assault on our personal freedoms at home. Transparency is the only answer.