When you're gutting humanitarian aid programs that provide water, food, and medicine to some of the world's poorest people, maybe skip the celebration cake. That's essentially the message from Fox News host Jessica Tarlov, who responded to a ProPublica investigation with a reference that would make any history teacher proud.
"Marie Antoinette is laughing at these guys," Tarlov wrote on X, reacting to the report that Trump administration officials marked their accomplishments with a literal sheet cake party.
The Celebration and the Cuts
Here's what happened, according to ProPublica: On the one-month anniversary of President Donald Trump's January inauguration, political appointees gathered at a Washington, D.C. office to celebrate their rapid dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The agency had been funding programs that provided essentials in regions where people don't have the luxury of debating policy over dessert.
The cuts were dramatic. Officials reportedly slashed nearly 90% of the agency's work in just a few weeks. Inside USAID, staff described the process as chaotic and arbitrary—lifesaving projects terminated through vague spreadsheets, with little apparent concern for what happens when you suddenly stop funding cholera clinics or water programs. Employees were told to stop talking to aid organizations and were blocked from updating Congress.
The ProPublica report includes a particularly stark example: USAID clinics in South Sudan lost their funding just as cholera was spreading rapidly. These clinics were saving lives with 62-cent intravenous fluid bags—not exactly a budget-breaker, but the funding disappeared anyway.
Warnings Allegedly Ignored
According to the investigation, senior officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and State Department Office of Foreign Assistance appointees Peter Marocco and Jeremy Lewin were repeatedly warned that the cuts would result in deaths. They proceeded regardless. Rubio later claimed no one died due to the aid freeze—a statement ProPublica characterized as false.
Economic Data Goes Dark
Tarlov didn't stop with the foreign aid critique. She also called out what she described as the Trump administration withholding economic data from the public during a recent episode of "The Five."
"We aren't getting the jobs numbers anymore, the GDP numbers, or the inflation numbers," she said, pointing to a pattern that coincides with some less-than-encouraging economic signals.
"Good luck blaming [Joe] Biden for an economy of the GOP's creation with 70% of Americans saying their costs are up," she added on X.
She highlighted several concerning trends: layoffs climbing toward Great Recession levels, utility bills surging, and a manufacturing sector that's been contracting for nine consecutive months. That's not exactly the economic backdrop you want when you're trying to claim victory.
Tarlov contrasted Trump's current situation with what Biden faced when he took office. "Donald Trump doesn't have the same issues that Joe Biden did," she argued. "He doesn't have a supply chain problem. He doesn't have a global health pandemic that was killing millions of people all over the world."
The implication: Trump inherited a relatively stable economic situation, which makes the current headwinds harder to explain away. And when the data starts looking bad, making that data harder to find doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
