USAID staffers instructed to remain out of Washington headquarters after Musk mentioned Trump agreed to shut it
WASHINGTON — Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development had been instructed to remain out of the company’s Washington headquarters on Monday, in keeping with a discover distributed to them, after billionaire Elon Musk introduced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to close the company.
USAID staffers mentioned additionally they tracked greater than 600 staff who reported being locked out of the company’s pc programs in a single day. Those nonetheless within the system acquired emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters constructing “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.”
The developments come after Musk, who’s main a unprecedented civilian overview of the federal authorities with the Republican president’s settlement, mentioned early Monday that he had spoken with Trump concerning the six-decade U.S. help and growth company and “he agreed we should shut it down.”
“It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk mentioned in a reside session on X Spaces early Monday. “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 mentioned.
Musk, Trump and a few Republican lawmakers have focused the U.S. help and growth company, which oversees humanitarian, growth and safety packages in some 120 international locations, in more and more strident phrases, accusing it of selling liberal causes.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration positioned two high safety chiefs at USAID on go away after they refused to show over categorized materials in restricted areas to Musk’s government-inspection groups, a present and a former U.S. official instructed The Associated Press on Sunday.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, generally known as DOGE, earlier carried out an identical operation on the Treasury Department, having access to delicate info together with the Social Security and Medicare buyer fee programs. The Washington Post reported {that a} senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk’s workforce accessing delicate info.
Democratic lawmakers have protested the strikes, saying Trump lacks constitutional authority to close down USAID with out congressional approval and decrying Musk’s accessing delicate government-held info by way of his Trump-sanctioned inspections of federal authorities businesses and packages.
USAID, whose web site vanished Saturday with out rationalization, has been one of many federal businesses most focused by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal authorities and lots of of its packages.
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” Trump mentioned to reporters about USAID on Sunday evening.
Musk’s and Trump’s feedback got here with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in another country, in Central America, on his first journey overseas in workplace. Rubio has not spoken publicly about any plans to close down USAID.
The Trump administration and Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on overseas help that has shut down a lot of USAID’s help packages worldwide — compelling 1000’s of layoffs by help organizations — and ordered furloughs and leaves which have gutted the company’s management and employees in Washington.
Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first time period, was a pacesetter in implementing the shutdown. USAID staffers say they consider that company outsiders with guests’ badges asking questions of staff contained in the Washington headquarters are members of Musk’s DOGE workforce.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren mentioned in a submit on Sunday that Trump was permitting Musk to entry individuals’s private info and shut down authorities funding.
“We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm,” the Massachusetts senator mentioned, with out giving particulars.
Knickmeyer and Hussein write for the Associated Press.