Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador in Washington DC, has hit back at “fake” claims an institute he once led received money from USAid, the US foreign aid agency being targeted by Donald Trump.
The office of Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, issued a statement seeking to dispel claims circulating online suggesting that Rudd and the Asia Society – where he has held various roles since 2015 – benefited financially from USAid.
“We’ve seen posts claiming Kevin Rudd received money from the US Agency for Int’l Development in 2022,” Rudd’s former prime ministerial office wrote in a statement posted to X on Saturday (Australia time).
“It’s a fake. USAid doesn’t fund Kevin Rudd or Asia Society. Nor did Asia Society receive any USAid funding during Dr Rudd’s period as president.
“It’s a lie. Pure and simple.”
The Asia Society is an organisation with several wings broadly focused on educating the world about Asia, and includes a thinktank and educational and fundraising arms.
Rudd was its chief executive and president from 2021 to 2023, and before that was president of the society’s thinktank from 2015.
Guardian Australia has contacted Rudd’s Queensland-based office for comment.
The statement follows an outcry from US government workers after the announcement of major cuts to USAid.
The gutting of USAid has largely been overseen by the businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally, who is spearheading the president’s effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
On Monday Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, that he and his employees had “spent the weekend feeding USAid into the wood chipper”.
The agency’s website now states that, as of midnight on Friday (Saturday AEDT), “all USAid direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs”.
The Trump administration plans to keep fewer than 300 employees, out of more than 10,000, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
A lawsuit filed against the Trump administration over the cutting of USAid funding said the “collapse” of the agency “has had disastrous humanitarian consequences”, including shutting down efforts to fight malaria and HIV.
– with AAP
