Elon Musk appointed by President Trump to upend the US government announced that he is canceling foreign aid for LGBTQI Rights in Greece.
Responding to a question from a Greek EU parliamentarian he said: “While looking into this, the team identified a $25,000 award entitled “Empowering LGBTQIA+ Refugees in Greece” with the description “To provide material, legal and psychological support to LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees; inform and raise awareness of civil society on issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.” It has now been cancelled.”
The announcement followed a letter from Emanouil Fragkos, an MEP from the nationalist Greek Solution party, who asked Musk to have the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, investigate “US funds to Greek NGOs reserving luxury hotels for illegal migrants.”
Fragkos requested from Musk information regarding any identified instances of misallocated funding, either direct or through NGOs, intended to assist illegal migrants in Greece adding that “the parallel, yet powerful ‘deep state’ system of corruption and waste of public money, working cross-border, in order to enforce the ideology of unstoppable illegal migration must be identified and unrooted.”
Fragkos retweeted DOGE’s tweet, writing “Catharsis, we bring change.”
According to USAspending, the official open data source of federal spending information, the recipient of the award, which was given through the US Embassy in Athens, received the full sum in September 2024, meaning the cancellation only affects funding for 2025.
Musk and Trump target US foreign aid
Musk heads DOGE, a White House team tasked with cutting federal spending. The unit has terminated a slew of government grants and contracts, according to its X account, and disrupted the work at agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where workers have also recently been put on leave or lost their jobs.
President Trump has targeted USAID, the country’s $43 billion foreign aid agency, as he began dismantling US foreign aid programs. “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make decisions,” he said last week.
The statement followed Executive Order 14169, issued on January 20, 2025, which froze most US foreign development assistance programs for 90 days pending a comprehensive review. Trump defended the move as necessary to curb wasteful spending and ensure that foreign aid serves “America’s interests.”
The aid freeze impacts a vast global network of programs—not only humanitarian relief and global health initiatives but also security assistance, governance support, and economic development projects. USAID, a key player in fighting HIV/AIDS, building energy infrastructure in Africa, and containing infectious diseases like Ebola, has been brought to a standstill.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Greece received a relatively modest sum compared to its neighbors, in 2023 U.S. foreign assistance amounted to $891,893 supporting programs in education and social services ($550,000) as well as peace and security initiatives ($345,000).
By comparison other countries in south-east Europe received substantial amounts in US aid. Kosovo, for example, $70 million in the same period, North Macedonia $31 million, Romania $26 million and Serbia $47 million.
Related: “Let’s Make Europe Great Again” – Elon Musk Praises Greek Cypriot MEP Fidias
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