Marco Rubio Calls Out NGO-USAID Fat Cats in Foreign Aid System [WATCH]

Marco Rubio defended his past comments on U.S. Agency for International Development spending while outlining what he described as major reforms to how American foreign aid is delivered, arguing that the previous system wasted large amounts of money and failed to help recipient countries become self-sustaining.

Rubio addressed the issue in response to a reporter’s question about his earlier remarks on the impact of cuts to USAID funding.

“Do you stand by your statement earlier this year that nobody has died from USAID cuts?” the reporter asked.

Rubio said the situation being referenced was the result of government failure rather than ideology alone, and argued that the collapse of the country in question was driven by incompetence.

“On your first point, I think it’s not just the policy of this administration. I think every administration would love to see a different type of situation in Cuba, Cuba was a disaster. It’s a disaster,” Rubio said.

“It’s not just because they’re Marxists and because they’re terrorists. They’re incompetent. These are incompetent people. They’ve destroyed that country.”

Rubio then shifted to defending changes made to U.S. foreign aid policy, saying he supports the reforms and considers them a significant improvement over how aid was previously distributed.

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“On the second point, I’m very proud of the changes we’ve made in foreign aid,” Rubio said.

“Just yesterday, the day before, we are, I think before the end of this year, going to enter into over 50 compacts, health compacts with different countries around the world.”

Rubio explained that under the old model, large portions of aid money never reached the people it was intended to help.

“Understand the way this used to work. We used to go to a country and say, we’re going to give we’re going to give you a bunch of money for your health care programs, and then we would go out and hire some NGO in Northern Virginia, or whatever,” Rubio said. “They would take their 60% cut off the top for administrative aid. They would take another 20% before you knew it, just a portion of that money was even reaching these countries.”

He emphasized that this was not speculation but a documented problem.

“In many cases, many of those countries, it is true. I heard somebody whisper, there’s not true. It is true,” Rubio said. “And many of these countries, and many of these countries, the governments didn’t even know how much money was being spent.”

Rubio said the new approach replaces that system with direct agreements between governments, designed to ensure accountability and long-term results.

“We are now entering into government to government compacts with these governments,” Rubio said. “And compacts are the following, not only are they provided assistance, but they are being provided a plan to build up their own self sustainment and their own their own abilities internally.”

WATCH:

🚨 NO GAMES: SecState Marco Rubio shuts down fake news hysteria claiming USAID cuts caused “deaths.”

“I’m very PROUD of the changes we’ve made in foreign aid!” pic.twitter.com/vseL9H9Uwl

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 19, 2025