- USAID funding has been frozen
- About 60 senior staffers have been put on leave
- They denied DOGE access to their systems
- Elon Musk stated that USAID is politically biased
- He also pointed out that Trump allegedly agreed to shut down USAID
USAID allegedly tried to avoid Donald Trump’s executive order to cut off foreign aid for 90 days, after which funding was frozen and 60 senior staffers were put on leave.
Also, according to CNN, DOGE has taken control of USAID’s systems and data, and Elon Musk said the agency is incredibly politically partisan, beyond repair, and needs to be shut down, which he said Donald Trump agrees with.
More About USAID’s Activities and Claims
USAID is a humanitarian aid and international development agency that acts as a soft power for the United States around the world. It is part of the U.S. global strategy encapsulated in three D pillars: defense, diplomacy and development, led, respectively, by the Defense Department, State Department and USAID.
However, USAID became a target of the recently formed DOGE, which determines the effectiveness of the government and its departments, after allegedly taking steps to violate Donald Trump’s executive order to cut off international aid for 90 days.
Immediately afterward, the agency’s funding was frozen and about 60 senior staff were placed on leave, followed by extremely direct comments from Elon Musk.
He was very active in X and pointed out what he saw as multiple expenses and politically radical leftist and anti-American movements on the part of USAID.
He also calls “USAID a criminal organization,” and he compares USAID to a “ball of worms that is not fixable.”
However, that was not the end of it, as DOGE allegedly took control of USAID’s security systems and also aimed access to confidential data to investigate the true economics and instructions.
Ultimately Elon Musk insists USAID must be “shut down”, and he says Donald Trump has confirmed to him that he agrees with him. Sunday the website stopped working and USAID public affairs office was put on leave and locked out of their systems, although no official decisions have yet been made.
In turn, this raised strong security concerns, such as in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio Sunday, Democratic members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
“An immediate update about the access of USAID’s headquarters, including whether the individuals who accessed the headquarters were authorized to be there and by whom. The potential access of sensitive, even classified, files, which may include the personally identifiable information (PII) of Americans working with USAID, and this incident as a whole, raises deep concerns about the protection and safeguarding of matters related to U.S. national security. Any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed and approved by Congress.”
It has also met with disapproval and doubts about such decisions, as USAID Director of Security John Voorhees and his deputy have expressed among dozens of USAID officials:
“The State Department doesn’t have the capacity, the expertise, the training to do that kind of work. It is a completely separate line of effort that is undertaken on the ground. The one element of the US government bureaucracy on the ground in foreign places that has been able to get out beyond the wire and actually have a deeper understanding of the places in which we work is USAID. That ability to work in that way, that culture — and it is a culture I think — gets lost. And with it, I think we lose an enormous, incredibly valuable tool of US foreign policy. We’re basically going to be punching with one arm behind our back”
Conclusion
No final decision has been made yet, but it is happening very loudly and dramatically and is generating lively debate on many sides.
Given this, whether USAID will get closure or whether it can still be considered a matter of time remains to be seen. Be aware and stay tuned.
The information provided in this article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Any actions you take based on the information provided are solely at your own risk. We are not responsible for any financial losses, damages, or consequences resulting from your use of this content. Always conduct your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Read more
