Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, part of the ruling coalition in Lithuania, says he has been tricked by a scammer who pretended to be an employee of the US administration’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) and invited him to meet with Elon Musk’s team.
Žemaitaitis says he realized that he had been scammed when he arrived at the airport and found out that the tickets sent for him and his spouse were fake.
“A few weeks ago, our team was contacted by Ryan Reidel who works for DOGE and introduced himself as a member of Musk’s team. After a few weeks of correspondence and exchange of information, we were invited to come to the US and meet their team. The purpose of the meeting was to receive the information gathered by USAID,” Žemaitaitis said in a Facebook post.
“However, when we arrived at the airport today, it turned out to be a scam by our Lithuanian actors. The plane tickets are fake! We have to go back to work, and our main Lithuanian master of intrigue has managed to deceive us,” he added.
In early February, Žemaitaitis asked the US administration for information about grants provided to non-governmental organisations operating in Lithuania, claiming that the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “undoubtedly has an impact on the domestic politics of Lithuania”.
The Nemunas Dawn leader also said he was ready to meet with Musk to discuss “this situation and other possible cooperation projects”.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump froze US foreign aid for 90 days and effectively dismantled USAID. The temporary funding restrictions have put most of the agency’s programs around the world on hold.
LRT reported at that time that the freeze also affected Lithuanian NGOs, as projects funded through the US embassy were cancelled and services and training programs were discontinued.
USAID is the US government’s main international humanitarian aid and development agency. It managed more than 40 billion US dollars in appropriations in 2023, accounting for about 40 percent of the global aid budget.
According to media reports, the Trump administration plans to slash USAID’s staff from over 10,000 to fewer than 300.
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