Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: August 4 2025

Three items from this morning’s news show the real presence of waste, fraud, and abuse. 

Waste: Canceling U.S. foreign aid leaves tens of thousands of tons of food in warehouses, some already past its expiration date, while children starve in Gaza, Sudan, and other places around the world.

Fraud: Judd Legum reports that “Days after $5 million donation to MAGA Inc., Trump freezes Medicare waste crackdown.” 

And abuse: a former Geo Group official was appointed to high-ranking DHS position that oversees private prison contracts—with an ethics waiver and in a way that avoided Senate confirmation hearings.

Waste

Suppliers of U.S. food aid have warned for months that cancellation of foreign aid programs leaves warehouses full of food—already paid for by the U.S. government, but now not going anywhere. 

The most effective famine fighter is called Plumpy Nut, a silly-sounding name for a life-saving product.

[Wired] “Take a peanut-based paste packed with 500 calories and nearly 13 grams of protein. Store it in a 92-gram foil pouch, so it can be easily sucked by starving infants on the front line. No water or refrigeration is required, meaning it can be distributed in drought-hit areas and stored at ambient temperature for up to two years. Just a couple of daily sachets can lead to a 10 percent weight gain over six weeks, sustaining recovery from severe acute malnutrition for less than $60 per child. Saving a life, it turns out, literally costs peanuts: just 71 cents a serving.

“This life-saving mixture is Plumpy’Nut. Developed by Normandy-based manufacturer Nutriset in 1996 by French paediatrician André Briend, it was the first ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF): energy-dense pastes that have boosted survival rates of severe acute malnutrition in children from less than 25 per cent to around 90 percent.”

Some of the essential, life-saving food has already been marked for destruction. More will soon reach its expiration date. The U.S. government already paid for the food. But policy changed under Trump, and now tens of thousands of tons sit in warehouses, forbidden to go anywhere. 

[Washington Post] “‘DESTROY’ stickers were affixed this week to hundreds of cases of U.S.-branded food aid — 15,000 pounds’ worth — that have languished for months in a Georgia warehouse and then expired before they could be sent overseas to famine-stricken areas like Sudan.

“And Mana Nutrition’s warehouse holds plenty more of the peanut paste, a crucial element in treating malnutrition. A $50 million supply has been stacked for months in the nonprofit’s facility in Pooler, a short drive from Savannah, caught in the chaos as the Trump administration upended foreign aid and never shipped.”

Adding insult to injury, Trump claimed repeatedly last week that the United States has sent $60 million in food aid to Gaza. That’s a a flat-out lie. The United States has allocated $30 million in food aid for Gaza, but has sent only $3 million so far. 

Fraud

Here’s the short version:

[Popular Information] “On February 24, 2025, Extremity Care LLC, a company that sells very expensive bandages made from discarded placentas and other substances, donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., President Trump’s Super PAC. Six days later, on Truth Social, Trump blasted a pending Biden administration rule that would have barred Medicare from covering Extremity Care’s products — which can cost thousands of dollars per square inch and lack scientifically proven benefits. …

“‘Skin substitute’ products went from a negligible source of Medicare spending in 2014 to $256 million in 2019, and then surged to more than $10 billion in 2024. One of Extremity Care’s products, Coll-e-Derm, costs $11,051.10 per square inch. Another Extremity Care product, CompleteFT, costs $7,812.38 per square inch.”

The article goes on to explain that other products cost far less, and are also paid for by Medicare. These products have undergone rigorous testing and have proven effective. But who needs scientific testing when you can pay billions to a big-time Trump contributor for something that may not work? 

Abuse

The subhead on the Washington Post story pretty much says it all: ” David Venturella, a veteran of private prison firm Geo Group, joined the Trump administration to help oversee an expansion of the immigrant detention system that’s benefiting his former employer.”

For details on how the appointment avoided a Senate confirmation hearing, and got an ethics waiver for any conflicts of interest, go ahead and read the WaPo story. 

Waste, fraud, and abuse—not the targets of the Trump administration, just its normal modus operandi.