President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) upended the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) structure after shuttering its office and publicly promising a shutdown of the agency Monday.
USAID’s status and future became murky after Musk claimed during an X Spaces discussion early Monday morning that he and Trump had agreed to shutter the agency. The Trump administration then reportedly directed personnel who typically work in the agency’s Ronald Reagan building headquarters to work from home, adding that “further guidance is forthcoming” in an overnight email obtained by NBC News. By Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed he became USAID’s new acting director, accusing the agency of behaving as a “global charity.”
“We’re spending taxpayer money here,” Rubio told reporters while on a diplomatic visit to El Salvador. “These are not donor dollars; these are taxpayer dollars, and we owe the American people the assurance that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest. And so far a lot of people who work at USAID have simply refused to cooperate … I’m the acting director of USAID.”
The State Department’s apparent takeover of the agency comes after Musk revealed he and DOGE “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” He later clarified during an X Spaces conversation after midnight Monday morning that he and Trump had agreed to scrap the agency entirely.
“None of this could be done without the full support of the president, you know,” Musk said. “And with regard to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down … And I actually checked with him a few times. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ He’s like, ‘Yes.’ So we’re shutting it down.”
USAID appropriated over $40 billion in foreign aid in fiscal year 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The closure of USAID’s headquarters follows an incident where the agency’s security initially blocking DOGE representatives from entering its offices over the weekend, citing insufficient security clearances, sources told CNN. After DOGE personnel threatened to involve U.S. Marshals, security relented and granted them access to the facility, including sensitive security systems and personnel files.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin assured Musk that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would protect DOGE employees against any attempt to stymy the organization’s efforts.
“Let me assure you of this: we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people,” Martin wrote in a letter Monday. “We will not act like the previous administration who looked the other way as Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what.”
The move follows week of aggressive moves by the president against executive agencies, with USAID emerging as a key target of the administration’s restructuring efforts. Trump signaled a willingness to dismantle the agency — whose normal operations have been upended by a series of foreign aid freezes and personnel purges — in an interview with reporters Sunday, just hours before Musk’s X Spaces discussion.
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out … then we’ll make a decision,” the president said.
Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, added to the weekend’s speculation that Trump would abolish USAID or place it under the State Department’s jurisdiction — a suspicion Rubio seemed to confirm after declaring he was the agency’s new acting director — during a Sunday interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Mast’s committee has direct oversight over the State Department and its programs.
USAID’s website has since gone dark, seemingly replaced by a pared-down page on the State Department’s website.
Established in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy, USAID has been the primary vehicle of U.S. humanitarian assistance, dispensing tens of billions annually to over 150 countries to combat malnutrition, disease and advance American interests through media and social initiatives.
Trump has long derided foreign aid as wasteful, arguing the U.S. subsidizes nations that do not sufficiently respect American priorities. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce defended the administration’s shift, stating the government will no longer “blindly dole out money with no return for the American people.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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