{"id":6972,"date":"2025-02-18T08:23:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T08:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/pete-marocco-returns-to-battle-in-trumps-war-on-foreign-aid\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T08:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T08:23:18","slug":"pete-marocco-returns-to-battle-in-trumps-war-on-foreign-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/pete-marocco-returns-to-battle-in-trumps-war-on-foreign-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Marocco Returns to Battle in Trump\u2019s War on Foreign Aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pete Marocco has spent much of this month hunkered in an office suite on the seventh floor of the State Department overseeing the dismantling of the architecture for how the United States delivers foreign aid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But he did have time to greet a foreign guest who had been making the rounds in Washington during the Trump administration\u2019s early days: an official in the government of Viktor Orban, Hungary\u2019s autocratic leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the meeting, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/magyarnemzet.hu\/english\/2025\/02\/its-official-trump-admin-halts-us-programs-interfering-in-hungarian-internal-affairs#google_vignette\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">statements released<\/a> by the Hungarian official, Tristan Azbej, Mr. Marocco pledged to halt all aid programs that \u201cintervened\u201d in Hungary\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The next day, Mr. Orban <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/orban-hungary-eliminate-ngos-usaid-aff22b9f9003f4c6c3115a9798c18af6\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">took to state radio<\/a> to announce that media outlets, pro-democracy groups and other organizations that have received money from the U.S. Agency for International Development would be considered \u201cillegal agents.\u201d He praised the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to shutter the aid agency as a \u201ccleansing wind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was a little noticed moment of symbiosis between the governments of President Trump and Mr. Orban, which has spent years trying to suffocate political opposition and independent news media in Hungary. The country remains a NATO member, even as Mr. Orban has assiduously cultivated closer ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it is also a glimpse of how Mr. Marocco \u2014 the State Department official who took over the remains of U.S.A.I.D. and is now charged with reorienting a foreign aid mission to serve Mr. Trump\u2019s agenda \u2014 sees his job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gutting aid programs can be a weapon to punish some countries, especially those that are poor. It can also be a gift for others where Mr. Trump is seeking a friendlier relationship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Marocco is now directing the battle rhythm of the most high-profile fight the Trump administration has chosen to wage in its effort to shrink the federal work force and end what it portrays as left-wing policies. In doing so, he is all but shutting down an agency that presidents have seen for decades as an essential tool to advance U.S. interests by distributing aid abroad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whether this fight runs afoul of the law \u2014 and the Constitution \u2014 is a question at the center of numerous legal challenges to the Trump administration\u2019s efforts. The foreign aid money that Mr. Trump ordered frozen during his first week in office had already been appropriated by Congress, and several lawsuits are making their way through the courts challenging his directives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before his new job, Mr. Marocco worked as a conservative political activist in the Dallas area and used appearances on podcasts and other media to advance the false claim that Mr. Trump had won the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The State Department did not make Mr. Marocco available for an interview. This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials who have worked with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of Congress that he had given Mr. Marocco, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/2017-2020.usaid.gov\/who-we-are\/organization\/pete-marocco\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a former Marine<\/a> known for a hot temper and for demanding total loyalty from his staff, the job of reviewing all facets of foreign aid to \u201cmaximize efficiency and align operations with the national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For his part, Mr. Marocco has described U.S.A.I.D. as something of a rogue organization at odds with Mr. Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an affidavit filed on Feb. 10 as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Foreign Service Association to halt the dismantling of the agency, Mr. Marocco said he had \u201cgrave concern about whether U.S.A.I.D. was faithfully following the president\u2019s and secretary\u2019s directives.\u201d He said the freeze in American aid, what he called \u201cpencils down,\u201d was necessary \u201cto gain control of an organization\u201d that included employees who were insubordinate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, a federal judge <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/14\/us\/politics\/court-trump-foreign-aid-freeze.html\" title=\"\">ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign aid<\/a>, saying the blanket halt was based on dubious logic. He gave the administration until Tuesday to show it was complying with the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Marocco has told State Department officials that his job is a balancing act and that he understands the mandate of a team led by the billionaire Elon Musk to eliminate nearly all foreign aid. In social media posts, Mr. Musk has called U.S.A.I.D. a \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/02\/us\/politics\/usaid-official-leave-musk.html\" title=\"\">criminal organization<\/a>\u201d and said it was \u201ctime for it to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to one former American official, Mr. Marocco accompanied Mr. Musk\u2019s team when it first entered the agency\u2019s headquarters on Jan. 27, after Mr. Marocco had been appointed overseer of foreign aid at the State Department but a week before he was officially appointed to his U.S.A.I.D. job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the other hand, Mr. Marocco has said that Mr. Rubio wants foreign aid to be more efficient, not eliminated, and that influential members of Congress have similar views. Mr. Rubio, he has told colleagues, provides him \u201ctop cover.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials at U.S.A.I.D., who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the staff had been ordered not to publicly discuss the changes at the agency, have indicated that Mr. Marocco has been a driving force behind many of the steps to dismantle it since he was appointed on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The following day, Mr. Marocco informed 1,400 U.S.-based staff members that they had been put on indefinite administrative leave, according to two people with knowledge of the order and a copy of the note viewed by The New York Times. Hours later, U.S.A.I.D. foreign service officers were told they would have to return to the United States within 30 days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those orders are now on hold until Friday, after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order as part of the lawsuit to overturn the Trump administration\u2019s cuts to the agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Marocco bounced around the government during the first Trump administration, with brief stints at the Commerce Department, the State Department, the Pentagon and U.S.A.I.D. One former Defense Department official who worked with him said that Mr. Marocco was deeply suspicious of anyone who raised questions about his policy initiatives, even Defense Department lawyers, whom he saw as insubordinate \u201cdeep state\u201d bureaucrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2020, he spent several months at U.S.A.I.D., running a bureau that oversaw the agency\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/2017-2020.usaid.gov\/who-we-are\/organization\/bureaus\/bureau-conflict-prevention-and-stabilization\/office-transition-initiatives\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Office of Transition Initiatives<\/a>, which had a $225 million budget to mitigate conflict in select countries. U.S.A.I.D. employees who worked with Mr. Marocco said that job turned out to be a kind of dry run for his current role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Office of Transition Initiatives, unlike much of the rest of U.S.A.I.D., was supposed to move swiftly to deliver grants to countries vital to American interests. But when Mr. Marocco arrived at U.S.A.I.D. in the summer of 2020, according to five former employees, he ground to a halt the office\u2019s operations by ordering an immediate review of most of its programs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He insisted on personally approving expenditures above $10,000, and that he at least be notified about expenditures below that threshold. He started targeting staff members who he believed had espoused anti-Trump sentiments on their social media profiles or elsewhere. When managers resisted firing people he had identified as potentially disloyal, they also became targets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the process of trying to reshape the agency, Mr. Marocco clashed not just with career U.S.A.I.D. employees but also with the Trump administration\u2019s political appointees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In September 2020, U.S.A.I.D. employees wrote a 13-page memo in the agency\u2019s \u201cdissent channel\u201d detailing a number of Mr. Marocco\u2019s actions that they said had led to the office becoming \u201cless flexible, less rapid, less trusted, less efficient\u201d and \u201cplummeting\u201d morale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIntervention is urgently needed,\u201d the cable concluded. Mr. Marocco left the agency shortly afterward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Given how his previous tour at the agency had ended, some employees said they saw some of Mr. Marocco\u2019s actions in recent weeks as retribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIn the past, what he was doing seemed designed to gum up the works, to slow everything down,\u201d said Joseph Curtin, who worked at the Office of Transition Initiatives in 2020 and now works in a different bureau of U.S.A.I.D. \u201cNow he wants to destroy everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Curtin was publicly critical of Mr. Marocco and other appointees at the agency in 2020, which resulted in him being put on \u201cMr. Marocco\u2019s list,\u201d he said a colleague told him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another appointee whom Mr. Curtin criticized was Merritt Corrigan, who ended up <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/03\/us\/politics\/merritt-corrigan-usaid.html\" title=\"\">leaving the agency<\/a> in August 2020 amid criticism for her past statements, including that the United States was in the grip of a \u201chomo-empire\u201d pushing a \u201ctyrannical L.G.B.T. agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Corrigan and Mr. Marocco are now married. She held a previous job at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington and has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/brussels-playbook\/politico-brussels-playbook-presented-by-exxonmobil-vdls-big-day-battles-for-europes-soul-meh-too\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">described Mr. Orban<\/a> as \u201cthe shining champion of Western civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A group of investigators <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/K2theSky\/status\/1853542193056600531?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1853542193056600531%7Ctwgr%5Eef0ae13c9dce5e0f7e55d771a10e9945c1b41aac%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmagazine.com%2Ffrontburner%2F2024%2F11%2Fdallas-hero-exec-pete-marocco-caught-on-cam-inside-january-6-capitol-insurrection%2F\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">identified the couple<\/a> as being outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The group, which calls itself Sedition Hunters, has pored over videos and photographs of the mob and has aided the F.B.I. in its investigation into the attack. Neither Mr. Marocco nor Ms. Corrigan was charged, and neither has confirmed being at the Capitol that day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dmagazine.com\/frontburner\/2024\/11\/dallas-hero-exec-pete-marocco-caught-on-cam-inside-january-6-capitol-insurrection\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">asked by a Dallas-based news outlet<\/a> last year about his role in the attack, Mr. Marocco did not address whether he or his wife were part of the mob. Instead, he called the accusations \u201cpetty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in a podcast interview in 2022, he made clear that he believed the results of the 2020 election were suspicious. Mr. Marocco said he had volunteered after the election for an effort to scrutinize and challenge the results in Pennsylvania, where he claimed to have seen \u201cfirsthand\u201d evidence of fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In particular, he cited the fact that in some counties, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had claimed a large share of registered Republican and independent votes, calling the idea \u201claughable on its face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe decisions that were being made, and this characterization that there was no evidence of fraud, is absolutely untrue,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s evidence everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Eric Schmitt<!-- -->, <!-- -->Edward Wong<!-- --> and <!-- -->Michael Crowley<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/us\/politics\/foreign-aid-marocco-trump.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Marocco has spent much of this month hunkered in an office suite on the seventh floor of the State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[202,250,511,407,97,573,2642,510,208,364,572,1284,983,111],"class_list":["post-6972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-appointments-and-executive-changes","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-elon","tag-foreign-aid","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-marco","tag-marocco","tag-musk","tag-pete","tag-presidential-transition-us","tag-rubio","tag-state-department","tag-united-states-agency-for-international-development","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pete Marocco Returns to Battle in Trump\u2019s War on Foreign Aid - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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