Six years earlier than Donald Trump declared the US Company for Worldwide Growth a “tremendous fraud” and ordered it to be dismantled, his spouse, Melania Trump, and daughter, Ivanka Trump, promoted “successful” USAID applications that they supported in Africa.
In the meantime, Melania Trump touted the optimistic influence of USAID funding on applications throughout a four-country tour of Africa when she was first woman in 2018.
Melania Trump additionally was famously photographed touring the pyramids and Nice Sphinx in Giza, wearing a handy guide a rough, cream-colored Ralph Lauren jacket and matching fedora. She was in Giza to to watch a USAID-backed mission to restrict groundwater that threatened to erode hieroglyphics within the iconic Egyptian monument, the Related Press reported.
US First Woman Melania Trump visits Chipala Main Faculty in Lilongwe on October 4, 2018 throughout a 1-day go to in Malawi, a part of her week lengthy journey to Africa to advertise her ‘Be Best’ marketing campaign. (Picture by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Picture by SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photos) 
Senior Advisor to the U.S. President Ivanka Trump (C-R) shakes arms as she visits cocoa cooperative farmers close to Adzope as the primary Ladies Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative West Africa Regional Summit in April 2019 in Abidjan. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
“We know there’s a correlation between gender inequality and conflict, there’s tremendous amounts of research,” Ivanka Trump stated. “There’s a reason today, the president signed W-GDP as a national security presidential memorandum. It is in our domestic security interests to empower women.”
That yr, Ivanka Trump launched into her personal go to to Africa, the place she met with girls cocoa farmers in Adzope, Côte d’Ivoire. She was a part of a delegation that introduced that these feminine entrepreneurs would obtain $2 million in help via USAID’s W-GDP fund, which was meant to encourage personal sector funding in cocoa farming, in line with the the US Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire. In Africa, Ivanka Trump additionally visited a espresso store in Ethiopia, the place she introduced a mortgage backed by USAID to help espresso companies owned by girls.
The administration introduced a near-total freeze on all overseas support and stated it was placing practically all of its greater than 10,000 workers in the USA and internationally on compelled administration go away, because the New York Instances and Related Press reported. The administration gave virtually all USAID staffers posted abroad 30 days to return to the U.S., whereas company officers had been instructed that about 800 awards and contracts administered via the company had been being canceled.
The memo furthermore decried sending “$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt,” providing a reminder of Melania Trump’s iconic go to to the pyramids, a worldwide vacationer vacation spot. In line with the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced in September that USAID would supply $129 million to help Egypt’s reforms in advancing “responsive government institutions and transparency,” in addition to public schooling, public well being providers. The help additionally would assist Egypt protect its cultural heritage and develop its tourism sector “for the benefit of Egyptians and visitors for decades to come.”
Initially Printed: February 7, 2025 at 11:22 AM PST
