Podcaster Joe Rogan called USAID a “money laundering operation,” but admitted in a discussion with rock legend Bono that President Donald Trump’s cuts may have been too hasty.

The U2 frontman and humanitarian joined Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience this week and the pair debated some of Trump’s drastic spending cuts, including effectively shuttering USAID. Bono, a musician and activist, referenced a report suggesting that humanitarian programs being cut through USAID have led to 300,000 deaths around the world.

He appeared to be referencing a study from Boston University infectious disease mathematical modeler Brooke Nichols, who argued that most of those deaths would be children.

Bono said:

It’s not proven, but there’s surveillance enough to suggest 300,000 people have already died from just this cut off, this hard cut of USAID. So there’s food rotting in boats, in warehouses. There is, this will fuck you off, this will not, you will not be happy, no American will, but there is, I think it’s 50,000 tons of food that are stored in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and wait for it, Houston, Texas. And that is rotting rather than going to Gaza, rather than to Sudan, because the people who know the codes for the warehouse are fired, they’re gone. And so this, I don’t know, I just, what do you think, what is that? That’s not America, is it?

Rogan said the Trump administration is “throwing the baby out with the bath water,” but he argued USAID’s distribution of funds was not closely watched enough.

“The problem is, for sure, there have been a lot of organizations that do tremendous good all throughout the world. Also for sure it was a money laundering operation. For sure there was no oversight. For sure billions of dollars are missing,” he said.

Rogan did admit that Trump’s USAID cuts were too hasty, chalking it up to the administration trying to do as much they can before the midterms.

The podcaster explained:

The whole thing is there’s a lot of fraud, a lot of money laundering, but also, we help the world. And when you’re talking about making wells for people in the Congo to get fresh water, when you talk about food and medicine to places that don’t have access, like, no way that should have been cut out. And that should’ve been clear before they make these radical cuts. Like, there’s got to be a way to keep aid and not have fraud. And you can’t say we’re gonna kill everything so that there’s no fraud. But then you’re killing all the good and you’re doing it without letting anybody know it’s gonna happen.

Bono argued that the United States’ humanitarian efforts are necessary and what the rest of the world looks to them for.

“I mean If it’s big government or whatever, people wanna shrink, I get the instinct, but this, the life-saving part, it’s like the little finger of the giant,” he said.

Watch above via The Joe Rogan Experience.

The post Joe Rogan Admits Trump USAID Cuts Went Too Far In Bono Debate: ‘Got To Be a Way To Keep Aid and Not Fraud’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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