Rogue Judge Blocking Trump Agenda Has Chilling Link To USAID

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Rogue Judge Blocking Trump Agenda Has Chilling Link To USAID

Trending Politics News
By Mark Steffen
February 17, 2025

Calls are growing for a federal judge who blocked part of President Donald Trump’s agenda to rescind his ruling after his spouse was found to have personally benefitted from some of the programs the president has been trying to shutter.

News of the curious connection came out last week after U.S. District Judge John Bates paused President Trump’s scrubbing of government-run websites promoting gender ideology, an overhaul that comes as part of his effort to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The executive order targeting “gender ideology extremism” was in the crosshairs of Bates, who wrote that the government would be unable to provide a remedy to affected individuals “during an appointment time to a patient who cannot return in the future.”

Bates’ ruling is among more than a dozen that have stymied President Trump’s early efforts to scuttle large swaths of the federal bureaucracy. The decisions, in turn, have sparked widespread calls by Republicans to limit the power of district judges to implement nationwide injunctions.

At the same time, the connections of judges like Bates to the agencies under review are being investigated. One outlet discovered that Bates’ wife, Carol Rhees, is the founder of a nonprofit that receives direct funds from USAID to deliver relief efforts to children in Ethiopia. The organization Hope for Children in Ethiopia “received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants,” according to the Western Journal.

Elon Musk, who is heading up President Trump’s cost-saving efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency, quickly noticed and elevated the news report.

“No kidding. Yet another corrupt judge,” he wrote on X.

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https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/just-in-rogue-judge-blocking-trump-agenda-has-chilling-link-to-usaid-mstef/

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One outlet discovered that Bates’ wife, Carol Rhees, is the founder of a nonprofit that receives direct funds from USAID to deliver relief efforts to children in Ethiopia. The organization Hope for Children in Ethiopia “received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants,” according to the Western Journal.


Sure looks like a conflict of interest. Also, this only the money we've found out about so far.