1 of 3 | U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (pictured earlier this month) announced on Monday that he is acting director of the United States Agency for International Development. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday he is acting director of the United States Agency for International Development amid an “apocalyptic” shakeup.
According to Rubio, the “functions of USAID” must align with U.S. foreign policy, calling it “a completely unresponsive agency.” Advertisement
However, Rubio has “delegated the authority” to run the agency over to an unnamed U.S. official.
Any implication for the world’s largest provider of food assistance to underdeveloped parts of the globe remains largely unclear, but a number of organizations delivering humanitarian aid warned they may have to suspend operations or close altogether.
“There are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do,” Rubio stated.
Meanwhile, a top U.S. diplomat claimed the move is “not about ending the programs that USAID does, per se.” Advertisement
“There are things that it does that are good and there are things that it does that we have strong questions about,” the unnamed source purportedly told CNN.
The changes arrived as federal USAID employees worked Monday from home after being instructed to not report for duty at the department’s main office in downtown Washington because it was closed.
“At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025,” workers were told in an email sent just after midnight, a copy of which CNN said it had obtained.
An official described it as “the apocalypse” at USAID.
“Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” the email read in part.
Attempts by UPI to access the agency’s website and social media accounts were unsuccessful in the morning hours.
Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur in charge of President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, followed up early Monday by saying USAID was in the process of being shut down. Advertisement
“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (Trump) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said on his X Spaces forum
USAID was established in 1961 by an act of Congress.
The unprecedented lockout came two days after two senior USAID security officials were placed on administrative leave for refusing to allow Musk’s team access to classified documents for which they lacked the necessary security clearances, and a little more than a week after all existing foreign aid was suspended for 90 days, pending a review, with exceptions for Israel and Egypt.
Foreign aid overall accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget.
Musk’s conversation indicating Trump agreed the agency needed to be shuttered arrived after after Musk arbitrarily posted earlier without evidence that USAID was “a criminal organization” and it was “time for it to die.”
Meanwhile, the Tesla and Space X owner accused the independent agency — which has spent the past six decades spending billions of dollars annually alleviating poverty, disease and the impact of natural disasters around the world, as well as promoting democracy — of being “incredibly politically partisan.”
Musk alleged it backed “radically left causes” around the world those that were “anti-American” and that, on the basis of what his team had found, it was so far that it could not be fixed. Advertisement
“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you just need to get rid of the whole thing. That’s why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night, Trump concurred saying the agency had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics.”
“We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision” on what future, if any, lay ahead for USAID, according to Trump.
The Washington Post says the move on USAID demonstrated the new administration’s determination to force a change in the direction of United States foreign policy toward the implementation of Trump’s perceived “America First” policies.
The Post described the agency as having been besieged since Trump came into office Jan. 20 “whipsawed by aid freezes, personnel purges and confusion.”
