Democrats have delivered a strong rebuke against the Trump administration’s attempt to gut an agency that provides crucial aid overseas to fund education and fight starvation and disease, calling it illegal, vowing a court fight and lambasting billionaire Elon Musk for wielding so much power in Washington.
Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters, and officers blocked the lawmakers from entering the lobby Monday, after Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.
The fast-moving developments come after thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs shut down in the two weeks since Trump became president. And they show the extraordinary power of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration. Musk announced closing of the agency early Monday, as Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was out of the country on a trip to Central America.
Trump said shutting down USAID “should have been done a long time ago” and was asked whether he needs Congress to approve such a measure. The president said he did not think so, and accused the Biden administration of fraud, without giving any evidence and only promising a report later on.
“They went totally crazy, what they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn’t be getting it and to agencies and others that shouldn’t be getting it, it was a shame, so a tremendous fraud,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated his authorities to someone else. The change means that USAID is no longer an independent government agency as it had been for decades — although its new status will likely be challenged in court — and will be run out of the State Department.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called it an “illegal power grab” and said it was “a corrupt abuse of power that is going on.”
"It’s not only a gift to our adversaries, but trying to shut down the Agency for International Development by executive order is plain illegal,” the Maryland senator said.
The upheaval follows Trump ordering a freeze on foreign assistance, with widespread effects around the world. The moves by the U.S., the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid, have upended decades of policy that put humanitarian, development and security assistance in the center of efforts to build alliances and counter adversaries such as China and Russia.
U.S. and international companies have been forced to shut down tens of thousands of programs globally, leading to furloughs, layoffs and financial crises that have left many fearing the aid community has been too damaged by the freeze to resume work even if funding resumes. Other organizations have filed for bankruptcy after being told USAID would not be paying its invoices for projects that have already been approved and implemented around the world.
The Democratic lawmakers gathered outside the agency building for a rally and press conference and gave the most forceful pushback since Trump took office last month. They said they expected a flurry of lawsuits to be issued in the coming days against the Trump administration. They tried to walk into the offices to talk to staff about the changes but were denied entrance.
They said Trump lacks the constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval and decried Musk’s accessing sensitive government-held information through his Trump-sanctioned inspections of federal government agencies and programs.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said USAID is not just about saving other countries from starvation and disease. “There is a reason that USAID is an arm of American foreign policy, and it is because we understand that a stable world means a stable America,” he said.
USAID staffers said more than 600 additional employees had reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” The agency's website vanished Saturday without explanation.
On Monday, two State Department employees who tried to get into the USAID offices said they were turned away by security guards. Later, uniformed Department of Homeland Security officers and security officers blocked the lobby of the USAID’s headquarters using yellow tape with the words “do not cross.”
Musk, who's leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with Trump's agreement, said early Monday that he had spoken with Trump about the six-decade U.S. aid and development agency and “he agreed we should shut it down.”
“It became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said in a live 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 said.
Musk, Trump and some Republican lawmakers have targeted the U.S. aid and development agency, which oversees humanitarian, development and security programs in some 120 countries, in increasingly strident terms, accusing it of promoting liberal causes.
Since Trump took office, appointees brought in from his first term such as Peter Marocco placed more than 50 senior officials on leave for investigation without public explanation, gutting the agency’s leadership. When the agency’s personnel chief announced that the allegations against them were groundless and tried to reinstate them, he was placed on leave as well.
It is widely known among current and former State Department and USAID employees that Marocco has been delegated authority over the agency by Rubio.
In his remarks Rubio stressed that some and perhaps many USAID programs would continue in the new configuration but that the switch was necessary because the agency had become unaccountable to the executive branch and Congress.
Over the weekend, 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 government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official said.
Musk’s DOGE earlier carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.
USAID, meanwhile, has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs. The U.S. spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries.
The Trump administration freeze on foreign assistance has shut down much of USAID’s aid programs worldwide, including an HIV-AIDS program started by Republican President George W. Bush credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa and elsewhere. Aid contractors spoke of millions of dollars in medication and other goods now stuck in port that they were forbidden to deliver.
Other programs that would shut down provided education to schoolgirls in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and monitored an Ebola outbreak spreading in Uganda. A USAID-supported crisis monitoring program, which was credited for helping prevent repeats of the 1980s famine in Uganda that killed up to 1.2 million people, has gone offline.
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27 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's a congressionally approved agency. King Trump can't just do what he wants.
sakurasuki
Democrat now becoming irrelevant?
bass4funk
And that’s all they can do, cluck like chickens and that’s it.
I'veSeenFootage
Once again, Trump making America weaker and its enemies stronger on the international stage. Even more proof he was and still is a russian asset.
Mr Kipling
Democrats had 4 years to find a candidate to take on Trump. They tried to hide Biden's failing brain and got found out. They are as much responsible for the present situation as any MAGA hat wearing Trump cultist.
JJE
This rogue agency is completely out of control.
A decent audit and full disclosure of its activities is absolutely needed.
This is what certain quarters are really afraid of.
Yrral
Mr Kipling, private citizen can legally challenge Trump authority
JJE
The fact that Dems finally found a cause worth fighting for - defending a corrupted monument to waste, coups and imperialism called USAID - is as pathetic as it is unsurprising.
Can't wait until the next Dem march in defense of CIA.
stormcrow
If the U.S. steps out, then we know who will step in.
I'veSeenFootage
Once again, MAGA fans doing the bidding of Russia and China, spreading their propaganda like good little soldiers. They have, of course, no idea what USAID is or what it does, but they received their marching orders: "it's corrupt, out of control, and it has to be erased!!!!". Pathetic.
TaiwanIsNotChina
No, Trump will find himself reversed by the courts as is the story of his life. To bad they won't reverse his conviction.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Garbage: Biden allowed for a younger candidate to take his place but America was too enamored with Failed Businessman to vote for a woman.
Tokyo Guy
"Democrats push back". That's something I've been hoping to read for the last....many years.
If they don't stand up and raise hell about this kind of thing, they're almost as culpable as the ones who are doing it.
Heck, sometimes I think Susan Collins has more "concern" over these things than some of the dems.
plasticmonkey
The opposition can't stop Trump. And I'm just fine with authoritarian oligarchy.
Because I only care about my team winning.
Let those children overseas starve to death. They should have invested in tech startups.
All hail Trump and Elon!
WoodyLee
USAID has helped feed and improve the lives of millions of children across the globe, something Mr. Musk and the elites know NOTHING about.
WoodyLee
As I said many times Mr. Musk should just stick with Tech and leave the rest to those who know better.
iknowall
Exactly.
Finally we have a leader who is actually leading, and is looking our for America's interest.
Ken
Musk throwing a tantrum like usual when denied something, when he's really just a greedy leech clinging on to the American dream until he brings the country down while treating it like its his personal toy
Blacklabel
Ohhhhhh a “strong rebuke”!
did they send a letter to someone too?
browny1
Couldn't get a more 1984 Orwellian name if you tried - DOGE - is that DOGGY?
The richest man in the world, unelected, carrying out goon attacks.
No understanding of the realities of world aid, privacy, rights et al.
Just break down those doors.
Of course take a hard look at agencies and determine what cuts, reforms could be made.
But this is classic Night of the Long Knives (Nacht der langen Messe)
Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his new regime.
That's why the Mercy Sermon went over Trump's head.
He thinks Mercy is a river near his golf course in Scotland.
plasticmonkey
All power and glory to Trump and Elon!
Blacklabel
Indeed. So much corruption they found already and really just starting.
wallace
What corruption was found?
I'veSeenFootage
Something about "50 millions worth of condoms sent to Gaza", and other stuff that never happened, but that won't stop the brain-addled MAGA crowd from screaming about it.
R B Quinn
Another illegal grab by MAGA (More Anarchy Guaranteed Ahead).
Tokyo Guy
"America shouldn't send money to other countries!"
"People are starving in those countries!"
"People are staring here!"
"Then let's help the people here!"
"No! That's socialism!"
(It was also pointed out that USAID helped defeat Apartheid, which makes President Musk's opposition to it a lot easier to understand).
bass4funk
I don’t think we need to be giving anymore money to these radical nations.
You were fine with it the last 4 years
When did Dems reach across the aisle? Oh yeah, only when it involved sending our money to other nations who didn’t deserve it.
Funny how the left now cares, they lost over 300k along the Southern border and did they care about these kids? Nope, absolutely not.