EXCLUSIVE: State Dept official ‘failed to do his homework’ before working with terror-tied charity, senior US official says
A senior Trump administration official told JNS that he is concerned about the U.S. State Department’s decision to work with a charity with ties to terrorism, after the department denied to JNS that the organization in question, World Vision, which is based in the United Kingdom, has troubling associations.
JNS reported that Foggy Bottom was working with World Vision as part of what it called a “historic” $2 billion distribution of global health foreign assistance. It made the announcement despite an Israeli court convicting World Vision’s Gaza operations manager of funneling up to $50 million to Hamas in 2022.
The Senate Finance Committee probed World Vision in 2019 and found that the Christian charity transferred $125,000 to Islamic Relief Agency, which the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions for terror ties, in 2014 as a sub-grantee for a U.S. Agency for International Development-backed humanitarian project in Sudan. The Senate panel called World Vision’s vetting procedures “borderline negligent.”
A senior Trump administration official close to the White House Office of Management and Budget told JNS that the State Department working with World Vision is a concern and that the one to blame is Jeremy Lewin, acting U.S. undersecretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom since July 2025.
“Similar to his obsession in funding communist U.N. agencies, Jeremy Lewin failed to do his homework, yet again,” the senior U.S. official told JNS. “World Vision is severely compromised by ties to Islamist terrorists and a radical left-wing climate change agenda. Why is he funding them?”
Lewin’s planned move to the White House in the summer to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council has been delayed. The delay, reportedly, owes to criticism from conservative activist Laura Loomer.
A State Department spokesman told JNS that “any implication that the Trump administration is permitting the diversion of U.S. foreign assistance to organizations with ties to terrorism is baseless.”
“No administration has held Hamas and other radical Islamist terrorist organizations more accountable than the Trump administration,” the spokesman said.
A senior administration official denounced Lewin and claimed that he strained ties with the Office of Management and Budget by allocating $3.8 billion to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Politico has reported. Tom Fletcher, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator who leads OCHA, has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran war and the Board of Peace and has shared anti-Trump views for years on social media.
Fletcher has also repeatedly accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza, spread debunked accusations that the Jewish state intentionally starves Gazans and told the BBC that 14,000 more babies in the Strip would die in 48 hours if Israel didn’t increase aid deliveries dramatically. He later said that he needed to be more “precise” in his comments.
“World Vision and its consortium of faith-based and community partners submitted a proposal that demonstrated their deep technical expertise, trusted community relationships, extensive government partnerships and decades of experience working closely with local faith-based and community organizations to deliver integrated health services across the world,” the State Department spokesman told JNS.
The U.S. contribution to World Vision does not include funding for World Vision in Gaza, the Foggy Bottom spokesman told JNS. World Vision suspended its operations in the Strip in 2016 after it was accused of terror funding ties.
World Vision dissolved its Israel branch in September 2024 in an agreement with the Israeli Registrar of Nonprofits, after the Israeli Justice Ministry cited audits that alleged financial deficiencies and asset transfers.
World Vision has said that neither it nor its Gaza operations manager committed wrongdoing and that its agreement with Israeli authorities included no findings of personal or systemic wrongdoing.
“We are confident in the vetting process that informed this partnership and remain committed to ensuring that U.S. assistance reaches the people it is intended to help,” the State Department spokesman told JNS.
A World Vision spokesman asked JNS to send questions via email. The questions were unanswered at press time.
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A senior Trump administration official has criticized the U.S. State Department for collaborating with World Vision, a UK-based charity, on a $2 billion global health foreign assistance initiative, despite the organization's alleged ties to terrorism. The official, close to the White House Office of Management and Budget, specifically blamed Jeremy Lewin, acting U.S. undersecretary of state, stating, "Jeremy Lewin failed to do his homework, yet again." This criticism follows an Israeli court's 2022 conviction of World Vision's Gaza operations manager for funneling up to $50 million to Hamas, and a 2019 Senate Finance Committee probe that found World Vision transferred $125,000 to the U.S. Treasury-sanctioned Islamic Relief Agency.
- The State Department denies any implication that the Trump administration is permitting the diversion of U.S. foreign assistance to terror-tied organizations, asserting confidence in its vetting process.
- World Vision suspended its Gaza operations in 2016 and dissolved its Israel branch in September 2024, though it denies any wrongdoing.
- Lewin's planned move to the National Security Council has been delayed, reportedly due to criticism from conservative activist Laura Loomer.
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