Trump's $2B Faith-Based Aid Pick Faces Terror-Funding Scrutiny

The Trump administration's $2 billion faith-based foreign aid program has triggered an internal rift, with a senior OMB official calling designated administrator World Vision "severely compromised" over funds reaching U.S.-designated terrorist entities.

"Congress and the American people deserve transparency with respect to the steps World Vision has taken to ensure taxpayer money is used as intended and not for illegal activity," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) wrote in 2023, after the charity refused to release an internal audit tied to its Gaza operations.

The controversy centers on Mohammad Halabi, World Vision's Gaza director, arrested by Israeli police in June 2016 and convicted in 2022 for diverting up to $50 million to Hamas over a decade. Hamas secured Halabi's release last year in a hostage exchange following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. Grassley's earlier investigation found World Vision's Sudan operations channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Islamic African Relief Agency, which had funded the Taliban, Hamas and an Osama bin Laden affiliate. His team called World Vision's vetting "borderline negligent."

The selection comes as the administration courts evangelical voters after dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. An April poll showed three-fourths of evangelicals were concerned about USAID's dismantling. But the World Vision choice undercuts the administration's stated rationale for foreign-aid reform — that such funds often reach terrorists and are prone to fraud — while straining ties with pro-Israel supporters who view the charity's record with alarm.

World Vision has repeatedly denied culpability in the Halabi case, and its partisans, including the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians and Amnesty International, have insisted on his innocence and criticized the Israeli court proceedings. Tim Costello, a former chief executive of World Vision Australia, said he "burst into tears" when Halabi gained his freedom. Earlier this year, Israeli forces captured documents in Gaza demonstrating both that Halabi was a Hamas operative and that Hamas worked to disrupt his trial.

Grassley's suspicions are grounded in prior experience with the charity. His office's investigation into World Vision's Sudan operations found the charity "ignored elementary level investigative procedures" in allowing taxpayer dollars to reach the Islamic African Relief Agency. The report expressed "reservations concerning World Vision's ability to avoid [similar] situations" given the charity's posture during the investigation, in which it abjured responsibility.

Additional allegations include World Vision's purported involvement with several branches of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 2012 and 2020, and alleged connections to Hamas officials and Hamas funding organizations throughout the years.

The stakes extend beyond one charity. The administration's foreign-aid overhaul was premised on preventing taxpayer dollars from financing terrorism. Choosing World Vision as the designated administrator of a $2 billion program — with the charity refusing to share its internal audit with Congress — raises questions about whether the administration's vetting standards match its stated objectives. The State Department's response to the OMB criticism has been to repeat talking points resembling World Vision's press releases, according to the Jerusalem News Syndicate.

The last time a major U.S. aid administrator faced comparable congressional scrutiny over terror-financing links was in the early 2000s, when the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — then the largest Muslim charity in the United States — was designated as a Hamas entity and its senior officials were convicted of providing material support to the group. That case led to sweeping reforms in how the U.S. government vets charitable partners for foreign aid programs.

Whether the State Department reverses course on World Vision remains unclear. The administration's evangelical outreach strategy depends on demonstrating that faith-based charities can be trusted stewards of taxpayer funds. But with Grassley pressing for transparency and internal administration divisions now public, the $2 billion program's credibility — and the administration's broader foreign-aid reform narrative — hangs on the outcome.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.