President Trump’s efforts to use foreign aid to win anti-corruption concessions and changes in policy from foreign governments should be applauded because many of those who receive U.S. tax dollars are “crooks,” according to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

Addressing a key issue in the impeachment and Senate trial of President Trump and claims the president sought a Ukraine corruption investigation of the Bidens in exchange for promised U.S. aid, the Republican said presidents have the “latitude” to withhold funding — and that several have.

Noting that President Barack Obama delayed aid to Ukraine, he said, “Do presidents have the latitude to play some games with foreign aid? Sure.”

Paul, a noted foe of foreign aid programs, added to Secrets, “I think the whole point is that aid is supposed to be conditional. We want something if we give them money. I don’t want to give them money anyway because I don’t think we have any money to give, nor do I think anywhere in the Constitution is it authorized to give foreign aid. So I’m proud of him withholding any aid any time he can.”

What’s more, he noted that Trump has “done it before,” as with Latin American nations that were forced to change immigration policies the administration didn’t like.

Paul said that the United States should push for anti-corruption policies in return for foreign aid because, in the past, governments receiving the money have stolen some.

“We should all be very wary of giving them money. It’s true of foreign aid in particular. I don’t want to say just all Ukrainians are crooks — most people in foreign governments who receive our money, or a lot of them, are crooks and have stolen it,” he said.

“They skim it off the top. They’re thieves,” Paul said, citing a study that found that “the most corrupt people in the world get the most foreign aid.”

Paul referred to the series of audits of U.S. aid to Afghanistan covering billions of dollars in spending. The audits from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction have detailed scams and theft for years.

Paul said that the reports show that the U.S. flooded so much money into Afghanistan so fast that “it had to be stolen” because it couldn’t be spent so hastily on infrastructure.

