Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador in Washington DC, has hit again at “faux” claims an institute he as soon as led acquired cash from USAid, the US overseas help company being focused by Donald Trump.
The workplace of Rudd, a former Australian prime minister and present ambassador to the US, has issued an announcement searching for to dispel claims circulating on-line suggesting Rudd and the Asia Society – the place he has held varied roles since 2015 – acquired cash from USAid.
“We’ve seen posts claiming Kevin Rudd acquired cash from the US Company for Int’l Improvement in 2022,” Rudd’s former prime ministerial workplace wrote in an announcement posted to X on Saturday (Australia time).
“It’s a faux. USAid doesn’t fund Kevin Rudd or Asia Society. Nor did Asia Society obtain any USAid funding throughout Dr Rudd’s interval as president,” the put up mentioned.
“It’s a lie. Pure and easy,” it mentioned.
The Asia Society is an organisation with a number of wings broadly centered on educating the world about Asia, and features a thinktank, and academic and fundraising arms.
Rudd was the CEO and president of the Asia Society from 2021 to 2023, and earlier than that, he was president of the society’s thinktank from 2015.
The Guardian has contacted Rudd’s Queensland-based workplace for remark.
The assertion follows an outcry from US authorities staff in latest days after the announcement of main cuts to USAid since president Donald Trump took workplace.
The gutting of USAid has largely been overseen by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a detailed Trump ally, who’s spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal forms.
On Monday, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his workers “spent the weekend feeding USAid into the wooden chipper”.
The company’s web site now states that, as of midnight on Friday (Saturday AEDT), “all USAid direct rent personnel might be positioned on administrative depart globally, excluding designated personnel answerable for mission-critical features, core management and specifically designated applications”.
The Trump administration plans to maintain fewer than 300 workers, out of greater than 10,000, sources instructed Reuters on Thursday.
A lawsuit filed in opposition to the Trump administration in latest days over the reducing of USAid funding mentioned the “collapse” of the company “has had disastrous humanitarian penalties”, together with shutting down efforts to battle malaria and HIV.
With AAP
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