Trump Spokeswoman Admits State Dept. Flubbed Data: ‘That’s Certainly Not Going to Happen Again’
The spokeswoman for the Department of State conceded that it issued some erroneous data regarding U.S. foreign aid.
Tammy Bruce, a former Fox News contributor, held her first press briefing on Thursday. She introduced herself and praised President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio before taking questions from the press.
Matt Lee of the Associated Press asked Bruce about the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been severely gutted in the first six weeks of the Trump administration, largely at the instruction of White House adviser Elon Musk.
“So on January 20th, the entire Function 150 account of the federal budget – which is all of the State Department and USAID, including operations, salaries – was roughly about one percent of the budget,” Lee said. “What’s your understanding of where that number, that percentage, is today?”
Bruce did not have an exact number, as Musk has frozen billions in foreign aid.
“Clearly, this is a rapid dynamic,” she said. “This is a process that is an internal process that involves an entire host of decisions that are being made over a number of different bureaus and dynamics that I’m not a part of.”
Lee responded by referencing a fact sheet the department issued shortly after taking office:
LEE: The reason that I pushed on the percentage number was because one of the first fact sheets that this department put out, and I know that you probably didn’t have much of anything to do with it, but it was about–
BRUCE: Oh, don’t underestimate me. Not yet.
LEE: Well, it was on– it was on January 29th… And it said in there, even setting aside generous support for Ukraine over the past several years, the U.S. is spending roughly $70 billion in foreign aid annually. Well, that was just not correct. And several hours later, after myself and other people pointed this out, it was changed. But it wasn’t sent out again, it was just changed online. But it was changed to $40 billion instead of 70.
BRUCE: Right.
LEE: And I just want to note the people who put this together, and I don’t know who they were, but that’s a $30 billion mistake.
BRUCE: Yes. Yes.
LEE: Is that the kind of accounting that—
BRUCE: No, it’s not. And I think [I] can speak on behalf, certainly, of my department and of this entire department and the speed with which some of these things are happening, that mistakes are corrected. There was one. It was corrected. And that’s certainly not going to happen again. That’s what I can pledge to you. I do know, and as everyone learned on that day, that the data matters, which is why I’m not going to stand here and guess, that the facts of the matter matter. And we’re determined– I am determined in this role – this is not just a first day for me but also for the department to see the nature, as a reminder, of what you’re all interested in and what we have to speak to. And I appreciate that. But yeah, it’s– everything’s a learning curve.
Watch above via the U.S. Department of State.
