A POWERFUL Donald Trump ally has criticised US funding of a Scottish book festival.
Republican Brian Mast, the new chairman of the US house foreign affairs committee, hit out at “wasteful” aid spending, including funding for the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The previous Democrat administration paid the festival $39,652 (£31,000) for its 2023 season, The Times reports.
The funding went towards a series of interviews “engaging with social issues around gender identity and inequality, racial equity and diversity”.
In a statement the charity said: “The US embassy in London has supported American and US-based authors to attend and take part in events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, like many other nations from around the world that support their artists at various festivals and events in the UK and elsewhere.
“Our 2024 funding from the US embassy supported a programme including geopolitical discussion and countering misinformation entitled Democracy Matters which also provided the opportunity for young people to attend events on democracy for free.”
Mast, blasted the “radical, far-left grants”, adding: “Democrats, you might be saying ‘oh this is just a drop in the bucket’, but this is a state of waste, it is a wasteful […] drop in the bucket that no American worker deserves to have their dollars going to.”
He also hit out at other US Agency for International Development (USAid) spending, including sending $15 million to the Taliban to buy condoms, $446,700 to promote atheism in Nepal, $1m to support Labour unions in Sudan and $20,600 for drag shows in Ecuador.
Trump has tasked tech billionaire Elon Musk with dramatically scaling down the agency and on Thursday the administration said it would axe 90% of USAid’s contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance.
