When President Trump talks about the “hundred millions of dollar fraud” that Elon Musk's cost-cutting team reveals in the federal government, he occasionally picks out one program with a specific cave corn.
“$20 million for Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East,” the president told a joint session of Congress this month.
However, the Arabic version of “Sesame Street” was not just for the progressives. In various iterations over the years, it has been endorsed by members of both parties, including Andrew S. Nutz-Os, a conservative Republican who led the US International Development Agency under President George W. Bush.
“The biggest weapon against al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism is 'Sesame Street',” Natz Os said in an interview, recalling how successful the show was in Egypt when the US government funded it during its term. The kids will see the show the morning before breakfast, he said, helping them adopt a more positive attitude towards the West.
The show is a textbook case of what is known as soft power, a kind of intimate, long-term diplomacy designed to build goodwill and influence around the world, and Trump has been largely abandoned in favor of powerful tactics in more deals.
As Trump and Musk pave their way through the federal workforce, their claims of fraud are often different opinions about policy, not examples of criminal injustice or corruption.
They falsely accuse, for example, that the payment in question was a subscription purchased by both Republican and Democrat administrations, of taking rewards, for example, from the Democratic administration.
They exaggerate long-standing issues with social security data, falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people could be receiving benefits.
And they described programs aimed at helping lift the world's poverty from poverty – such as a corrupt junket that strengthened female entrepreneurs who help the country create the tourism industry.
“A lot of the things they criticize are ridiculous,” Natz Os said. “What we do is find small businesses. Let's say they're making dresses of high quality that can be sold in the European market in Ukraine. We take women to trade shows in the US or Paris to help grow the business. This is one of the things listed as a junket of sorts.”
Many Americans support efforts to scale down governments, reduce spending, and oppose the idea that the US should provide assistance to combat illness and poverty overseas. Musk says his government's Department of Efficiency has eliminated unnecessary spending on unnecessary software, unused Zoom licenses, and underused leases.
But the Trump administration also claims it is revealing something more sinister: broad fraud and “kickbacks” in order to justify the cut across the board. In his speech to Congress, Trump encouraged Attorney General Pam Bondi to look for such cases.
“We're looking now,” Trump said. “In fact, Pam, good fortune. Good fortune.”
Asked if the Trump administration had discovered any particular cases of fraud, White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt argued that waste was essentially a fraud.
“I think all Americans agree that funding Mozambique mastectomy should not be funded by the American public,” she said. “I think it's illicit to have the US government ripped taxpayers apart like this.”
Levitt has mentioned USAID's decades of work with the Mozambique government, apparently making healthcare accessible to poor people in the country's rural areas.
On social media, Doge has denounced one company for potential fraud. Ed Martin, a US lawyer for the District of Columbia, said he is investigating companies paid to house unaccompanied immigrant children at an empty Texas facility.
The company made efforts to deny the allegations.
“First and foremost, let me be clear. The claims of corruption and mismanagement are completely unfounded,” Chip Furgum, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.
Dylan Hedler Gaudette, director of government affairs for the Project on Government Surveillance, a nonprofit watchdog investigating the Pentagon contract, said the Trump administration has not revealed any significant new cases of fraud.
“They are just chasing programs that are in some way politically beneficial to them,” Hedler Godette said. He added: “The problem with waste is that it is the eyes of the viewer. One person's waste is another's important investment.”
The Trump administration was asked for evidence to support the allegations that it uncovered fraud and abuse, and provided the New York Times with several lists.
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One included a project that could be described as a wasted SP in response to political views, rather than fraud. The list included foreign aid programs that the Trump administration believes should not receive US dollars. Others who promoted the causes of the environment. Contracts related to diversity and inclusion goals.
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The other was compilation of research from the Government Accountability Office, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other federal sources tracking inappropriate payments and wasted government practices. For example, one GAO investigation estimates that the federal government will lose between $233 billion and $521 billion a year to fraud. The study was not conducted by Musk, his cost-cutting team or by the Trump administration. They were discoveries from the Biden administration.
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The third is a database of cancelled contracts and other cuts, claiming Musk and his Doge team have saved the federal government about $115 billion. A New York Times review of Musk's data revealed accounting errors, false assumptions, outdated data and other errors. The Doge team has won billions of dollars in cuts, but its database does not include any specific allegations of criminal fraud or “kickback” that Trump described.
Every time a ton of money changes hands, there is a great risk of fraud. For example, in 2023, the Department of Justice said it had filed more than 3,000 defendants for crimes related to pandemic fraud and seized more than $1.4 billion in relief funds. These investigations were supported by inspectors trained to find abuse.
But nearly 20 inspectors who say the Trump administration is cracking down on fraud have been fired, with missions to clarify fraud, waste and abuse.
One of them, Michael J. Missal, who spent nine years as an inspector for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said his team saved more than $45 billion in government. He noted that they revealed evidence that led to the conviction of the serial killer.
“They don't want the independent people who run these offices, because we usually have intense reports that may not make the administration look good,” he said. “If they find a fraud, there should be a criminal case. We haven't seen a criminal case.”
Misal is suing to get his job back.
As for the Arabic “Sesame Street,” the Trump administration's cut means that educational companion programs to the show and translation into local dialects will be suspended in Iraq. The excluded funds provided books, classroom materials and training for Iraqi teachers to use in early childhood development centres, according to Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit organization that creates educational programs.
However, the main version of the show, called “Ahlan Simsim,” will continue to air in the Middle East and North Africa. The MacArthur Foundation, a charitable foundation, has been funding the program since 2018, in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, aid group.
