Liz Cheney Claps Back at Elon Musk After He Resurfaces Her USAID Past Amid Trump Crackdown
(William Atkins/GW Today)
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) found herself in the crosshairs of MAGA allies once again on Wednesday, responding sharply to Elon Musk after he promoted a right-wing post resurfacing her past work with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Cheney, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, previously served as a USAID officer in U.S. embassies, working in Poland, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine. Her early career involvement with the agency was highlighted on X by Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, a group aligned with right-wing causes.
In December, Benz took aim at Cheney’s USAID background, referring to her as “spawned out of USAID” in a post. He also noted that her early State Department roles in the 2000s focused on “democracy promotion” in the Middle East. On Tuesday, amid news that the Trump administration had placed U.S. aid workers on paid leave, Benz reshared his original post, further attacking Cheney’s past involvement with the agency.
“Liz Cheney, who led Trump’s impeachment and the mass imprisonment campaign against thousands of Trump supporters, was spawned out of USAID,” Benz wrote. Musk, who now heads the Department for Governmental Efficiency, an entity tasked with slashing trillions from the federal budget, reshared Benz’s post with a simple caption: “Interesting.”
Cheney was quick to fire back, offering a scathing response on X. “Damn right, @Elon. I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy. Our nation stood for freedom. You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen,” she wrote.
Her comment was a direct jab at Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a U.S. citizen in 2002. The exchange comes as the Trump administration moves to effectively shut down USAID, an agency with a six-decade mission of delivering humanitarian aid worldwide. The move has drawn sharp criticism from both foreign policy experts and lawmakers who argue that weakening the agency could undermine American global influence.
With Cheney remaining one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics and Musk amplifying right-wing narratives, the clash underscores the deepening divide over U.S. foreign policy and government restructuring under Trump’s second term.
