Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he is the acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development with Elon Muska and Donald Trump want to shut down. USAID‘s headquarters was closed Monday and the employees were sent a mail at night asking them to remain at home today as the future of the agency hangs in the balance. The website of the agency and the social media accounts went dark and thousands of personal services contractors and civil servants lost access to email and SAID systems overnight.
“At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025. Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” said the email.
What will happen to USAID?
The agency could be entirely shut down and placed under the umbrella of the state department as Marco Rubio has been appointed as the acting director.
“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in a X Spaces conversation early Monday. Donald Trump agreed and said USAID has been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and they will be purged first and then a decision will be taken about the future of the agency.
The sudden action led to utter confusion among the employees as many personal service contractors who travel on diplomatic passports have to be given 15 days of notice before termination. Some USAID contractors are on official work travel and they have no clarity of what will happen to them.
What does USAID do?
USAID provides relief to war-torn countries and other humanitarian aid. It was set up in the early 1960s and has around 10,000 employees with two-thirds working overseas. It has bases in more than 60 countries and works in many other countries where it does not have bases.
According to government data, the US spent $68bn on international aid in 2023.
Elon Musk and his cost-cutting DOGE see this operation as unnecessary. But shutting USAID completely would likely require an act of Congress.
