Explainer: Why does Elon Musk want USAID 'to die'?
Democrat lawmakers fear the end is near for USAID, while some say Trump cannot legally end the agency
Highlights:
- Trump administration halts US foreign aid to review spending
- USAID website goes down, X account gets deleted
- Musk calls USAID a "criminal organisation that should die"
- Says he is working to shut down 'beyond repair' USAID
- Around 100 officials put on administrative leave
- Trump administration moves to put USAID under State Department control
- Democrat lawmakers fear the end of USAID
- Some lawmakers argue Trump cannot legally end the agency
On the very first day as the President of the United States on 20 January, Donald Trump temporarily halted all US foreign assistance programmes for 90 days via an executive order.
Trump ordered a freeze on almost all US foreign aid, saying his administration will review spending to ensure money is distributed in line with his "America First" foreign policy.
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It has since been almost two tumultuous weeks for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Within a week, its country offices, including the ones in Bangladesh and India, started issuing notices suspending their activities.
On Saturday (1 February), the USAID website went down, and some browsers displayed the error message: "This site can't be reached. Check if there is a typo in www.usaid.gov."
Moreover, the agency's official X account (@USAID) was also deleted. Elon Musk, the platform's owner, wrote on X yesterday (2 February] that USAID is a "criminal organisation".
"Time for it to die," he wrote.
Musk today (3 February) said they are working to shut down the US foreign aid agency. According to him, USAID is "beyond repair."
USAID staff ousted by Trump administration
During weeks of mayhem inside USAID, the agency that funds billions of dollars worth of life-saving aid globally, around 100 of its officials have been put on leave.
The Trump administration removed two top security officials at USAID yesterday as they tried to stop representatives from billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from gaining access to restricted parts of the building.
It was reported on Saturday (1 February) that the Trump administration is moving to strip a slimmed-down USAID of its independence and put it under State Department control.
Members of the group from DOGE were allowed to access several secure spaces, including the office of security and the agency's executive secretariat.
However, there was no record of the information DOGE officials were able to obtain in those areas. The offices they accessed reportedly included classified files and personal information about Americans who work at USAID, sources told Reuters.
From a website to a page on State Dept site
After its website went down, online information about USAID is now available on a new page that is part of the State Department's website.
According to the Internet Archive, that page was captured for the first time on 27 January.
As of filing this report, seven items are available on the page, including a press statement dated 26 January titled "Implementing the President's Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid."
The original USAID website used to cover the wide range of the agency's portfolio, from humanitarian assistance and global health to education and conflict prevention.
Officials working under fear
USAID officials are currently working under an atmosphere of fear and chaos, two officials of the agency told The New York Times on 1 February, seeking anonymity.
They said they have orders that bar employees from discussing any changes to the agency.
They also said half of the agency's workforce had been eliminated in the last week of January.
Quoting people familiar with the changes, the NYTimes also reported that Pete Marocco, a State Department official who held multiple roles in the first Trump administration, appears to be overseeing the termination of the USAID programme.
Three other USAID officials told the newspaper that they are concerned about the installation of "an AI programme known as Gemini" on their email accounts.
'End appears near'
Democratic lawmakers fear the end of USAID.
"It seems more like the early stages of shutting down than it does of reviewing it or merely retitling it," Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, told New York Times, referring to the administrative leaves and gag order on staff.
USAID was created in 1961 when President John F Kennedy signed an executive order after Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act. The act mandated the creation of an independent agency to focus on development separate from politics and the military.
The agency was formally established by Congress as an independent agency in 1998.
It has since received foreign policy guidance from the State Department but otherwise functioned as an independent entity.
Can Trump legally end USAID?
US lawmakers have argued that Trump cannot legally end USAID with an executive order as its formal establishment was carried out by Congress.
"While some functions delegated from the president to the secretary of state, and in turn to the administrator of USAID, could likely be pulled back by executive action alone, wholesale dissolution of the agency or formal transfer of functions provided by Congress would require legislation," reads an article on Just Security, a forum on law, rights, and security run by former government officials.
Meanwhile, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, wrote on social media yesterday, "Trump isn't satisfied just to close programs and fire staff. He is now planning to ELIMINATE THE ENTIRE AGENCY. Maybe this weekend."
"That would be illegal. He cannot unilaterally close a federal agency. Another assault on the Constitution," he added.
Lawmakers also warned scaling back USAID operations indefinitely will enable China, Russia, Iran and other US adversaries to gain strategic footholds overseas that would damage US security in the long term.
"Eliminating USAID — which prevents famines, counters extremism, and creates more markets for US exports — would make the world a more dangerous place for Americans and be a gift to China and Russia," Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, said in a social media post on Saturday.
Bangladesh's icddr,b lays off over 1,000
Meanwhile, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) terminated more than 1,000 of its employees following Trump's decision to halt funding to foreign programmes.
These employees were involved in various research projects funded by USAID.
"Following the US government's directive, we have suspended all projects and research activities funded by them until further notice," said AKM Tariful Islam Khan, senior manager (communications) at icddr,b on 31 January after the termination letters were issued.
