Tech billionaire, Elon Musk, with the backing of President Donald Trump, on Monday shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tasked with humanitarian relief overseas after the two men adjudged the organization to be ‘beyond repair.’
Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reviewed the government agency with Trump’s go-ahead and decided to shut down USAID and its Washington, D.C. offices.
Mail Online reports that staff were shocked when they woke up Monday morning to emails instructing them to stay out of the agency’s D.C. headquarters.
USAID staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight.
Those still in the system received messages to their work emails saying ‘at the direction of Agency leadership’ the headquarters building ‘will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.’
‘It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in,’ Musk said of the six-decade U.S.
international aid and development agency. ‘What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.’
‘We’re shutting it down,’ he said in the audio-only appearance on X.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss noted in the announcement on his social media site that he spoke with Trump about the agency and they ‘agreed we should shut it down.’
As of 2016, USAID reported that it had 10,235 employees on its payroll.
The website for USAID was also shut down as of Monday morning.
The official government website for USAID and any former links for the site’s webpages now
shows a browser error message: ‘This site can’t be reached.’
The message comes after
NEW DAILY PRIME reported earlier that Musk has called USAID a “criminal organization” and said that it is “time for it to die.”
In a post on X, Musk wrote, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”
He made the statement in response to a post which mentioned that the Trump administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) inspection teams, a U.S. official revealed on Sunday.
Musk’s statement comes amid mounting reports that President Trump wants to abolish USAID, an independent federal agency, and fold it into the US State Department, CNN reported.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House, Stephen Miller, has accused USAID’s workforce of being overwhelmingly Democrats.
In a chain of events leading up to the shut-down, two senior USAID officials on Sunday tried to restrain DOGE officials from accessing systems at the agency, even after the DOGE officials threatened to call law enforcement, CNN reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.
CNN reported that personnel from DOGA tried to physically access the USAID headquarters in Washington, D but were stopped adding that the DOGE officials then threatened to call US Marshals to gain access.
The DOGE personnel reportedly wanted to gain access to security systems and personal files of USAID, and other classified information, which can be accessed by only those having security clearances and have a specific need to know.
CNN reported, however, that the DOGE officials were eventually allowed to access the headquarters.
The incident is the latest showdown as the DOGE wants to have increasing authority over the federal government with an aim to reduce spending.
On Sunday, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who is also a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, “Reports that individuals without appropriate clearance may have accessed classified USAID spaces as well as American citizens’ personal information are incredibly serious and unprecedented.”
She added, “We are seeking immediate answers about any implications for our national security and are bringing a group of bipartisan Senators together on this as soon as the Senate comes back tomorrow.”
Katie Miller, who was appointed by Trump to DOGE, on Sunday seemed to confirm that DOGE personnel had accessed classified information. In a post on X, Miller wrote, “No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”
On Saturday, USAID’s website went dark and a new page for the agency appeared on the website of the US State Department. In addition, USAID’s X account also went offline on Saturday.
Shortly being sworn in as US President on January 20, Trump issued an executive order pausing all foreign aid for 90 days, resulting in widespread confusion, layoffs and programme shutdowns.
USAID Director of Security, John Voorhees and his deputy are among dozens of USAID officials who have been put on leave amid fears that the agency is being intentionally dismantled.
Democratic lawmakers have said it would be illegal for Trump to unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without holding consultations with the Congress.
Established in 1961 under then-US President John F Kennedy’s administration, the USAID is the US government’s humanitarian arm which dispenses billions of dollars annually across the world in an effort to alleviate poverty, treat diseases, and respond to famines and natural disasters.
Last week, around 60 senior USAID staff were put on leave after accusations of trying to circumvent the executive order on foreign aid, CNN reported. Another senior official was put on leave for attempting to reverse that move after finding no evidence of wrongdoing.
