WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is about to be shut down, according to billionaire government advisor to Trump and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, who has been fighting to take control of the agency in recent days.
On Monday morning, Musk held a live session on X Spaces, formerly known as Twitter Spaces, and said that he spoke in detail about USAID with the president. "He agreed that we should shut it down," Musk said.
"It became evident that it's not an apple with a worm inside," said Musk. "What we have is simply a can of worms. We need to get rid of everything. It's beyond repair."
"We are going to close it," he added.
Your comments come after the government suspended two top security chiefs of USAID after they refused to hand over classified material in restricted areas to Musk's government inspection teams, as reported to The Associated Press on Sunday by a current US official and a former official.
Members of Musk's Government Efficiency Department, known as DOGE, finally gained access on Saturday to the classified information from the humanitarian agency, which includes intelligence reports, said the former official.
Musk's DOGE team lacked sufficient security accreditation to access that information, so the two USAID security officials - John Voorhees and deputy director Brian McGill - considered themselves legally obligated to deny access.
Current and former US officials were aware of the incident and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.
On Sunday, Musk responded to a post on X about the news by saying, "USAID is a criminal organization. It's time for it to disappear." He then made additional posts on X about the aid agency.
Kate Miller, who is part of an advisory council for DOGE, said in a separate post that classified material was not accessed "without the proper security clearances."
This happened a day after DOGE carried out a similar operation at the Department of the Treasury, where it gained access to sensitive information such as the payment systems of Social Security and Medicare clients. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned because Musk's team accessed sensitive information.
Musk formed DOGE in cooperation with the Trump administration with the stated goal of finding ways to lay off federal workers, cut programs, and reduce federal regulations.
USAID, whose website disappeared on Saturday without explanation, has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in a growing crackdown against the federal government and many of its programs.
"It has been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we are getting them out," Trump said to reporters about USAID on Sunday night.
The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance that has shut down much of USAID's humanitarian, development, and security programs worldwide, forcing thousands of layoffs by aid organizations, and ordering suspensions and furloughs that have decimated the agency's leadership and staff in Washington.
The United States is by far the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID managing billions of dollars in humanitarian, development, and security assistance in over 100 countries.
Peter Marocco, a political appointee returning from the first Trump administration, was one of the leaders in executing the shutdown. USAID employees said they believed that people who showed up at the agency with visitor identifications and asked questions to employees inside the headquarters in Washington were members of Musk's DOGE team.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a post on Sunday that Trump was allowing Musk to access personal information of individuals and suspend government funding.
“We must do everything in our power to resist and protect people from harm,” said the senator from Massachusetts, without giving details.