According to a story by the news website Trending Politics released Monday, Sen.Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) is facing major scrutiny over his role with the International Republican Institute (IRI), a taxpayer-funded nonprofit that received more than $130.7 million in federal grants in 2024.
Cotton serves as an IRI director, a position for which he does not receive official compensation.
The organization touts its global influence on its website, something that might not always align with President Donald Trump's "America First" policies.
According to DataRepublican, an X account that investigates government spending, the IRI millions have come directly from USAID.
Cotton, meanwhile, has come under fire from staunch conservatives for his opposition to Trump pick Eldridge Colby as an undersecretary in the Department of Defense.
Charlie Kirk, founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, says Cotton is working to further the traditional Republican establishment that doesn’t line up with Trump.
“Colby is one of the most important pieces to stop the Bush-Cheney cabal at DOD. Why is Tom Cotton doing this,” Kirk wrote on X.
Though Cotton is unpaid for his role on the board, IRI commits huge sums for its directors for things like travel, pensions and fringe benefits, according to DataRepublican.
The X account cites audit reports and states that IRI paid $12,173,741 for travel and $14,232,108 for benefits last year.
Senators Dan Sullivan, Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst and Mitt Romney are current board members. Former Senator Marco Rubio, Trump's new Secretary of State, just rotated off. Representatives Kay Granger and Jake Ellzey currently serve, too, making the non-profit a who's who of GOP lawmakers.
IRI says it works to empower citizens in the democratic process.
“It’s disappointing because Cotton is so reliable, and he's so good on the podium when he's got Democrats in the hot seat in Senate hearings, but the bigger problem is the tentacles USAID has had for years and years,” GOP strategist John Cardillo said on American Family Radio Tuesday.
“I don't think you can find a significant NGO or nonprofit that touches the political space on either side of the aisle that didn't take these ridiculously insane amounts of money from USAID,” Cardillo said.
That could mean that more conservative names are linked in the days ahead.
“I would venture a guess that 90-some-odd percent of your audience had never heard of the organization Cotton is involved with,” Cardillo told show host Jenna Ellis. “This organization that American taxpayers don’t even know exists, got $100-plus million of their money.”
While USAID’s funding of transgender ideology is found by many to be offensive, it’s funding of terrorism is dangerous.
Abuse ignored by U.S. officials
A multi-year study of USAID and the State Department by Middle East Forum, a U.S. think tank, found that $164 million in grants were approved to “radical” organizations with at least $122 million going to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters.
Billions more has been given to charities that fail to adequately vet partners for their ties to terrorism and show no interest in improving their practices.
The U.S. government simply says “check’s in the mail.”
This is the USAID organization that Democrats are fighting fiercely to save.
There have been protests in front of the closed USAID offices; there have been threats of violence against Musk and President Trump.
According to Cardillo, everyone from big-government Democrats to moderate Republicans are acting "hysterical" over Musk and DOGE combing through the federal government.
"And they're not hysterical because Elon Musk might have access to your finances. No, it's not about your money," Cardillo insists. "They're hysterical because he's looking at how they spend your money."
The arguments that Musk is unelected, that the DOGE team is too young and inexperienced, that DOGE will have access to the financial data of individuals....none of it holds up, Cardillo said.
“There are some very sophisticated minds out there that are younger, whose ages are 19, 20, 21. Some of these people are brilliant, especially looking at numbers and deciphering where the fraud and waste are,” Cardillo said. “We don’t want Musk and Trump to have our data? Newsflash, they’ve always had your data.”
Musk once served as CEO of PayPal. If he went about abusing the financial information of users, it’s not come to light.
Now, years later, Democrats want to fight Musk for highlighting abuses of taxpayer money.
As lawmakers continue to challenge Musk on this issue, their political support will vanish as more abuses are uncovered, Cardillo predicts.
“That congressional approval rating that hovers around 13%, it's going to be down around 2-3% when America sees what they've been doing with their tax dollars," he predicts.
The 'wrong people with access’
For Democrats, the problem is not that someone might have access to financial information, it’s who has the access.
Musk has it, abuses are coming to light, and that’s not how Democrats operate.
“They would rather it be their unelected bureaucrats, those who are aligned with the Democratic Party and the big government establishment types. They'd rather those anonymous people be looking at your finances. They hate transparency, and that’s what all this is about,” Cardillo said.
