Trump's national security adviser confronted with sudden flip on USAID after confirmation
President Donald Trump's national security advisor Mike Waltz was put on the defensive Sunday about a government agency he once supported.
Waltz appeared on "Meet The Press" where host Kristen Welker asked about the impact of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashing USAID's staff of 10,000 down to mere hundreds.
"It has become incredibly bloated, it has become incredibly top heavy, and it's essentially a series of contracts. If you think the big defense contractors have too much power and too much influence, wait until you dig into the USAID contractors and the subcontractors and the subcontractors and the local contractors," Waltz said. "The president wants action and that's what he's getting."
ALSO READ: 'Making America less safe': Democrats warn of disaster as Trump purges the CIA
Welker continued, "You know...you used to support parts of USAID's mission. As a member of Congress, you sponsored legislation for USAID to expand girls' access to education worldwide, which you said was, quote, 'Essential to our national security.' Is foreign aid vital to the nation's national security?"
"When foreign aid is aligned with U.S objectives and U.S. objectives meet the president's objectives as commander in chief, then it is, but that is not the case," Waltz answered. "Many of these senior aid officials have their own agenda, have gone their own direction, and these programs — many of which are no longer authorized by Congress — just seemed to continue in perpetuity. So, we can talk the entire time about USAID."
Waltz then shifted the conversation to President Trump's "amazing" foreign policy wins since he took office.
"I have a lot of experience about it on the ground, but in these first two weeks, we've had major foreign leaders. We have the Mexicans putting thousands of their troops on the border. The Canadians putting their assets on the border. Panama moving away from Belt and Road. Colombia first refusing to take deportation and then now taking it — and we can go on and on, with the successes of the hostages that the previous administration couldn't get out. President Trump says, 'There's all hell to pay,' and now we have, not only hostages from Hamas reuniting from their family, from Venezuela and from the Taliban, too. So, we've had an amazing two weeks. We can get into the details of foreign assistance, but it badly needs reformed."
Watch the Meet The Press clip via NBC News below or at the link.