White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sparred with a reporter who suggested that President Donald Trump was personally profiting from his time as president — specifically his upcoming trip to the Middle East — saying as Trump has in the past that he was likely losing money while he held the office.

During Friday’s White House briefing, a reporter asked whether Trump, while visiting the Middle East, planned to meet with people associated with his family business ventures in addition to political leaders — and Leavitt quickly read between the lines of her question.

WATCH:

.@PressSec smacks down the Fake News: “It’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would suggest that @POTUS is doing anything for his own benefit… This is a President who has actually lost money for being President… I don’t remember these same types of questions being… pic.twitter.com/yw6V7CtKCD

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 9, 2025

“You noted he is a successful businessman,” the reporter began. “Do you know if the president has any plans to meet with any of the folks involved with any of the family businesses over there or see any of the sites that are going to be new Trump resorts?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Leavitt replied, adding, “And let me just get to the premise of your question that both of you have raised. I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”

“He left a life of luxury, and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once but twice,” Leavitt continued. “And again, the American public reelected him back to this White House because they trust he acts in the best interests of our country and putting the American public first.”

“This is a President who has actually lost money for being President of the United States,” she concluded with a dig at former President Joe Biden, adding, “I don’t remember these same types of questions being asked of my predecessor about a career politician who was clearly profiting off of this office. That is not what President Trump does, and this White House holds ourselves to the highest ethical standards.”

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.

Akoll was accused of making false statements in Washington, D.C., federal court via an “information,” which typically signals a plea deal.

The fact that the money was paid out highlights how carelessly the government disbursed massive sums during coronavirus. The claim that the company had $40,000 in revenue in 2019 contradicts his own claim that it didn’t exist until January 2020.

The fact that Small Business Administration officials didn’t check state corporation records and catch the fact that it was actually established in November 2020 — or federal tax returns to verify the $40,000 — indicate that the government wasn’t doing basic database cross-referencing, the kind of thing the Department of Government Efficiency has made its bread and butter.

USAID was shuttered, with its remnants folded into the State Department, amidst concern by Republicans and the Department of Government Efficiency that the money was mismanaged. Akoll was in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing to foreign countries, where the money could be difficult to monitor, records show.

Coronavirus payments were disbursed with little vetting under a “pay and chase” model, where fraudulent claims would ostensibly be recovered later. But the Biden administration quickly gave up on chasing.

The Biden administration said in 2023 that it would not seek to collect on loans of less than $100,000 that were required to be paid back, citing “equity.” Most of the loans were designed to be forgiven, but those who did not meet the requirements were supposed to repay them.

That’s despite the Small Business Administration’s inspector general saying the move “is not in compliance with applicable criteria,” and that not even attempting to stop people from cheating the government encouraged future fraud.  

Congress nearly let the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, which was set up to police fraud in the pandemic bailout, expire in March 2025, which would have quickly closed the book on the government’s largest and most chaotic payment frenzy ever.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had only recovered three dollars for every dollar spent on its staff, which should have been higher. CourtWatch, which advocated for its continuance, said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had meager resources of only a few dozen employees, and that shutting it down could lead to even less recovery. CourtWatch said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had open investigations into $577 million in suspected fraud.

 Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, fought to keep the inspector general, saying, “I will not allow fraudsters to get away with stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers.”

The head of Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions testified to Congress that criminals stole $1 trillion in COVID money, most of which went overseas.