Elon Musk and President Donald Trump shut down USAID, the federal Government foreign aid agency, and locked out 600 employees overnight after the pair agreed it was “beyond repair”. The Mail has more.
The billionaire ‘first buddy’ led a civilian review of the federal Government with Trump’s go-ahead and decided this week to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Staff were shocked when they woke up Monday morning to emails instructing them to stay out of the agency’s DC headquarters.
“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said of the six-decade US international aid and development agency. “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 in the audio-only appearance on X.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss noted in the announcement on his social media site that he spoke with Trump about the agency and they “agreed we should shut it down”.
As of 2016, USAID reported that it had 10,235 employees on its payroll.
It managed more than $40 billion in appropriations in Fiscal Year 2023, which is less than 1% of the federal budget. USAID provides development and assistance in about 130 countries with these funds.
For this fiscal year, the President’s budget request was $28.3 billion in foreign assistance.
USAID staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight.
Those still in the system received messages to their work emails saying “at the direction of Agency leadership’ the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday February 3rd.”
Copies of the email show that replies were sent to Gavin Kliger, one of the six young engineers working for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which appears to be operating under the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
The website for USAID was also shutdown as of Monday morning.
The official government website for USAID and any former links for the site’s webpages now shows a browser error message: “This site can’t be reached.” …
Musk previewed the shut down earlier on Sunday when he attacked the agency in a post to X after Trump claimed it was “run by radical lunatics”.
“USAID is a criminal organisation,” Musk, who has become the President’s most powerful backer, wrote without providing evidence or proof of why he makes the claim.
He added, “Time for it to die” – and followed that up with multiple additional posts about the agency.
In one subsequent post, Musk doubled down and asked his 215 million followers: “Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?”
He did not elaborate on the allegations, which included a report claiming officials in the previous administration had links to a Russian disinformation campaign.
Trump attacked the agency over the weekend, claiming it has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future)”.
The President underscored his support for Musk, telling reporters on Sunday night he felt the billionaire was “doing a good job” even if they did not agree on every point.
Trump suggested that Musk wants to go even further with cost-cutting efforts, but says he has to holds his buddy back on some of his more ambitious ideas.
“He’s a big cost-cutter,” Trump said. “Sometimes we won’t agree with it or we’ll not go where he wants to go… he’s a smart guy. Very smart. And he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal Government.”
Afuera!
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