Donald Trump administration has put on administrative license dozens of US employees for international development (USAID) this weekend, three sources familiar with the matter said, as a measure of eliminating the agency’s independence from eliminating the agency and place it under the control of the State Department.
Almost 30 career employees in the agency’s legislative and public affairs department have lost access to their emails at night, the sources said, raising the total number of high USAID officials since last week since last week.
Elon Musk department
Two senior employees who supervised the agency’s security operations were also administratively removed after refusing to deliver confidential documents to Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge), one of the sources said.
The purge occurs after more than a week of chaos within USAID, the Washington agency that finances billions of dollars in helping to save globally. President Donald Trump has ordered the freezing of almost all US foreign aid, saying his government will revise spending to ensure that money is distributed according to his foreign policy “America First.”
Millions can be affected
The global freezing of most US foreign aid is already generating shockwaves worldwide. Campaign hospitals in Thai refugee camps, removal of land mines in war zones and medicines to treat millions of people suffering from diseases such as HIV are among programs at risk of elimination.
The president of the US House Foreign Committee, Brian Mast, said on Sunday (2) that supports USAID transfer to the State Department and that there needs to be “more command and control”.
Continues after advertising
Meanwhile, Trump Elon Musk’s allied billionaire continued to criticize the State Department and USAID in his X posts and republications on Sunday. Trump has charged Musk of leading a federal cost cutting panel with ample powers. Doge officials made frequent visits to USAID headquarters in Washington.
This Sunday, Musk accused Usaid of being “a criminal organization” without providing any evidence and added: “Time to die.”
