A bizarre conspiracy theory circulating online has combined two popular targets of right-wing hatred: rap music and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The wild theory accuses the US government of financially supporting hip hop music, alleging that Trump’s dismantling of USAID is responsible for rap music falling from the top of the music charts.
Right-wing figures push USAID rap music conspiracy
A new right-wing conspiracy has emerged online tying rap music to USAID, the American international aid agency that has largely been dismantled by the Trump administration. The theory appears to be based on instances in which USAID provided funding for programs in other countries that incorporated rap music, such as an anti-HIV public health campaign in Tanzania and a now-defunct program to promote anti-regime rap artists in Cuba. Far-right social media posters have recently made the leap from these real-world examples to speculation that USAID funded American rap artists. Rolling Stone traces the theory to far-right figure Steve Franssen, who posted on social media in May “ATTENTION PROUD WHITES: Everyone who hated rap in the 1990’s and 2000’s is VINDICATED.” Franssen’s post, which has been reshared hundreds of times on X, claims “Rap isn’t music. It’s government PISS that was funded by USAID to dumb down Middle America. Take a victory lap, proud Whites who didn’t fall for it!”
According to Rolling Stone, the conspiracy theory left the confines of right-wing social media when it was picked up by major conservative podcasters. Joe Rogan, in a conversation with conservative comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, elaborated upon the idea. “I love hip hop, but some people believe its rise in the 1980s was part of some government push to create more crime.”
Right-wing commentator Tim Pool also picked up the conspiracy, posting in July “Rap music is DEAD. USAID collapsed & all of a sudden, rap music disappeared from top charts.”
Right-wing hostility to foreign aid and music industry rule changes fuel narratives
The conspiracy theory ties together two unrelated phenomena: the dismantling of USAID and the decline in rap music’s popularity. Shortly after President Trump returned to the White House, USAID was one of the main targets of then-Trump advisor Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump administration effectively shut down USAID, blocking its officials, slashing its foreign aid funding and transferring many of its duties to other agencies such as the State Department. DOGE and other right-wing supporters justified the cuts through a variety of unfounded accusations against the agency. Right-wing sources accused USAID of everything from sowing dissent and misinformation in the US and around the world to alleging that it funded the development of bioweapons. Musk promoted many of these unfounded allegations on his social media platform X and described USAID as “evil” and “a criminal organization” as well as “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”
Music fans and industry analysts, meanwhile, took note in late 2025 when rap music dropped out of the Top 40 slots of the Billboard Hot 100 list for the first time since 1990. However, the decline in rap music, to the extent that there has been such a drop, began years before USAID was defunded, and represents a variety of factors, such as increased competition from a variety of global music genres. The Top 40 drop also came after Billboard changed rules for how long-charting songs can remain on the chart, and subsequent rule changes have altered the ways that streams count toward chart rankings, prioritizing listens by paid subscribers. These changes, unrelated to USAID, are seen as contributing to the changes in rap songs’ rankings on the charts.
One of the things that USAID and American rap music have had in common is disdain from right-wing sources. Now, some of these far-right figures have combined their hostility for the government agency and the musical genre, crafting an unhinged conspiracy theory that helps to promote their negative ideas about foreign aid and American rap music.