ISTANBUL

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded last year’s regime change in Bangladesh, as alleged by a former State Department official.

Mike Benz said the US backed regime change in Bangladesh because then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, who fled to India amid protests and violence last July, opposed Washington’s attempt to establish a military base in the region against Chinese influence.

Speaking to Tucker Carlson, a controversial right-wing US commentator on X – the platform owned by businessman Elon Musk, who has led efforts to criticize and shut down USAID – Benz claimed that the US-based International Republican Institute was supported by the State Department and USAID in their plan to “destabilize Bangladeshi politics.”

“In the process of doing that, they sought the LGBT population, two Bangladeshi ethnic minority groups, and young students and student groups who had already been protesting earlier that year because of some local politics issue there,” he said, underlining that they collaborated with 170 “pro-democracy activists” and 304 informants.

The US financed Bangladeshi rap groups creating songs and music videos encouraging people to take to the streets and protest, he said.

“They get 100% of the money from the State Department, and they work closely with USAID,” he said, adding that they administer US programs “all over Bangladesh and all over the world.”

The claims come amid President Donald Trump’s freeze on USAID’s budget, spearheaded by Musk, claiming misallocated funds and a lack of loyalty to his “America First” policy.

A White House statement claimed that USAID’s initiatives “do not align with American interests” and sometimes “destabilize world peace.” Critics of the anti-USAID drive, however, say its programs benefit US farmers and help open doors to the US worldwide, and that closing the agency would only embolden US rivals such as China and Russia.

USAID has historically provided funding to a range of non-governmental organizations to support its mission of promoting global development and humanitarian assistance.

However, under directives from Musk, the Trump administration initiated the shutdown of USAID operations both domestically and internationally, leading to widespread disruptions in global aid programs and affecting numerous NGOs and media organizations that relied on USAID funding.