WASHINGTION – Employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were instructed to refrain from entering their Washington D.C. headquarters this past Monday following billionaire Elon Musk’s announcement that he and former President Donald Trump had decided to dissolve the agency. Staff members reported that over 600 individuals found themselves locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those who remained logged in received an email from agency leadership stating that the headquarters would be closed to personnel on February 3rd.
This announcement and subsequent actions transpired after Musk, who is spearheading an unusual civilian review of the federal sector with Trump’s endorsement, disclosed in a live session on X Spaces that he had conversed with Trump about USAID, a six-decade-old organization. Musk claimed, “He agreed we should shut it down,” expressing concerns that the agency was fundamentally flawed. “It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it,” he explained, suggesting that the agency was so corrupted that “you’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing.”
Musk, Trump, and several Republican legislators have aggressively criticized USAID, which administers humanitarian, development, and security initiatives across approximately 120 nations, alleging that it promotes liberal agendas. Over the weekend, tensions escalated when two senior officials at USAID were placed on leave after they declined to provide classified materials located in restricted areas to the inspection teams appointed by Musk. This information was confirmed by both a current and a former U.S. official.
Previously, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, nicknamed DOGE, conducted inspections at the Treasury Department, gaining unauthorized access to delicate information, including the Social Security and Medicare payment systems. Reports indicated that a senior official at Treasury resigned in response to Musk’s team gaining access to sensitive data. Democratic lawmakers voiced strong objections to these actions, asserting that Trump lacks the constitutional authority to close down USAID without approval from Congress and expressing disapproval of Musk’s access to critical government information during these inspections.
Compounding the situation, USAID’s website mysteriously disappeared over the weekend, raising further alarms among employees. The agency has been a focal point of the Trump administration’s attempts to curtail federal operations and numerous associated programs. Trump expressed his disdain for USAID to reporters, declaring, “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out.”
Notably, these developments transpired while Secretary of State Marco Rubio was overseas in Central America on his first foreign trip in office, with no public comments on USAID’s potential shutdown having been made by him. The Trump administration and Rubio have enforced an unprecedented halt to foreign assistance, undermining a significant portion of USAID’s global operations, which has resulted in thousands of job cuts within aid organizations and further constrained the agency’s leadership and workforce in Washington.
Peter Marocco, a political appointee from Trump’s first term, played a pivotal role in the enforcement of these measures. USAID employees have voiced concerns that visitors with badges who were posing inquiries inside the headquarters might be representatives of Musk’s DOGE team. In reaction to the situation, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Trump for allowing Musk to access private information of individuals and halt government funding. She urged her colleagues to do everything possible to protect citizens from potential harm without revealing specific strategies.
