Democrat Senator Planning To Put a “Blanket Hold” On All Trump State Dept. Nominees, Single-handedly Derail All Appointments

The Trump administration, and Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk in particular, has been highly critical of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

NEW: Karoline Leavitt highlights the waste and abuse of USAID, lists the top 4 most insane priorities.

"Here's the reason why Elon Musk and others have been taking a look."

1. "$1.5M to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces."

2. "$70k for a production of a DEI musical in… pic.twitter.com/E0eKZCCYz3

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 3, 2025

But Democrats on Capitol Hill have made it clear that they’ll resort to any political tricks necessary to prevent the bloated agency from facing any sort of defunding.

Rep. Brian Schatz (D-HI) recently announced an especially bold move in response to the recent talk about shuttering USAID.

According to NBC News:

Schatz, who is on the Foreign Relations Committee, said his move is in protest of Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s declaring that he and Trump will shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development

“Dismantling USAID is illegal and makes us less safe. USAID was created by federal law and is funded by Congress. Donald Trump and Elon Musk can’t just wish it away with a stroke of a pen — they need to pass a law,” Schatz said in a statement.

“Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration’s State Department nominees,” he continued. “This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world.”

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His partisan antics sparked some social media backlash:

Bri, USAID was formed by an EO.
Not a law.

You really should look these things up. 🙂

More later. https://t.co/4u2olrAnly

— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) February 3, 2025

But an EO can get rid of a prior EO… which JFK used to create USAID https://t.co/W9vlt0KFyt pic.twitter.com/QdGut3cJ9n

— Dude… Fight progressives not each other (@john_iamme) February 3, 2025

Of course, this wasn’t Schatz’s only display of unadulterated partisanship in recent days:

DISGUSTING! In one of the most egregious slanders levied yet on a Trump cabinet nominee, Democrat Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii claims that RFK, Jr. wants to conduct the Tuskegee experiments on all Americans and millions will die if he is confirmed. pic.twitter.com/pY6I3DK0q2

— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) January 29, 2025

Axios reported only the latest developments within the White House:

• While representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios’ requests for comment in the evening, the president told reporters earlier Sunday that USAID was “run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision” on its future.

• Trump has already ordered a freeze on foreign aid as part of his “America first” foreign policy. The U.S. government is the world’s single largest humanitarian donor.

Driving the news: Musk said during a late-night discussion with former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on his X Spaces platform he went over USAID issues in detail with Trump and checked with him a few times if he was sure that he wanted to shut it down and he agreed to do it.

Here’s the clip Schatz posted of his own remarks:

There will be suffering all over the world because of Trump and Musk’s illegal attempts to dismantle USAID.

They are counting on some sense of inevitability. We have to stand up, and we will. pic.twitter.com/n4wlcUad78

— Senator Brian Schatz (@SenBrianSchatz) February 3, 2025