‘They have lot more money’: Trump defends scrapping alleged USAID funds for ‘voter turnout’ in India

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his administration’s decision to cancel the $21 million funds allegedly provided to a nonprofit organisation to support “voter turnout” in India.

“Why are we giving $21 million dollars to India?” Trump asked. “India has a lot of money. They’re one of the highest-taxing countries in the world. It’s hard for us to get in there because their tariffs are so high.”

He added: “I have a lot of respect for India, I have a lot of respect for the prime minister. He just left two days ago. But we’re giving 21 million dollars for voter turnout in India. What about voter turnout here? We’ve done that, I guess. We did 500 million dollars. It’s called the lock boxes.”

Trump made the comments at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida while signing an unrelated executive order.

#WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, “Why are we giving $21 million to India? They have a lot more money. They are one of the highest taxing countries in the world in terms of us; we can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high. I have a lot of respect for India… pic.twitter.com/W26OEGEejT

— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2025

On Sunday, the US Department of Government Efficiency announced that…

Read more