Musk noted that USAID is “beyond repair” and the only solution is “to basically get rid of the whole thing.”
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk has revealed that President Donald Trump has “agreed” to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Musk revealed early Monday that he had spoken with the president about the issues he found with USAID.
According to Musk, Trump confirmed that his administration is “shutting it down.” Musk’s remarks were made during an X Spaces stream that began at midnight EST. He held an online discussion to share updates on the work of the DOGE with the public.
The X boss said he checked with Trump a few times about shuttering USAID and asked “Are you sure?” Trump confirmed and said, “so we’re shutting it down.”
Musk also revealed that his team’s investigations into USAID found that the work of the agency is “incredibly politically partisan.” During the stream, Musk described USAID as not just an “apple with a worm it in” but rather a “bowl of worms.”
He noted that USAID is “beyond repair” and the only solution is “to basically get rid of the whole thing.” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was also on the stream with Musk.
Ernst said if there are “truly good pro-American programs” that were under the USAID’s ambit, they should be moved under the State Department. The senator argues that the State Department would ensure those programs “have proper oversight.”
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USAID Workers Told To Stay Home In Early-Morning Email As Musk ‘Spent Weekend Feeding It Into The Wood Chipper’
It’s happening fast after Sunday statements of Elon Musk confirming President Trump “agreed” to shut USAID down… USAID’s headquarters in Washington D.C. has been closed for the day on Monday, with employees receiving an early morning email telling them to remain at home.
Musk says the agency has effectively been shut down. The email, which is now widely circulating on social media postings, was sent from Gavin Kliger via an official usaid.gov. address. He is one among the twenty-somethings assisting Musk in implementing Trump’s order to slash foreign aid and stop waste.
“Logos and photos of its aid work have been stripped from building walls,” CNN writes of the HQ’s sudden closure. This after all web and and social media accounts went dark over the weekend, now with a simplified version of its webpage on the State Department’s website.
“None of this could be done without the full support of the president,” Musk said in a Sunday X Spaces event. “I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed with that we should shut it down. I want to be clear. I actually checked with him a few times. I said, “Are you sure?’ ‘Yes.’ So we’re shutting it down.”
Thousands of staff have told media outlets that they have lost access to their email accounts, which have been deactivated.
A USAID worker has subsequently said: “We have been officially informed that the US Department of State now has access to all of our internal documents and our entire suite of files, documents, everything — all of our systems.” Top officials were fired over the weekend.
Musk says “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper”…
Access to USAID’s Google drive and other sensitive data has reportedly been transferred straight under the State Department. It appears any future foreign aid programs will simply be run out of the State Department, with more executive branch oversight.
One big question that remains is how much noise Congressional leaders will make. Will Congress attempt intervention, also as there are reports that Musk and DOGE have access to the US Treasury’s payment system?
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All the shocking ways USAID spent your money
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars on some shocking expenditures.
USAID was established in 1961 to provide money made by Americans to help countries develop abroad.
However, the agency has been shuttered because Donald Trump and Elon Musk have found that the aid being doled out overseas often does not accomplish core U.S. missions, like expanding education and improving infrastructure.
‘You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair,’ Musk said of USAID on Monday. ‘We’re shutting it down.’
Now Musk and officials at his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are readying to dissolve the agency and roll it into the State Department, an idea the Tesla CEO says Trump is on board with.
Just after taking office, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio implemented a 90-day freeze on most foreign aid expenditures to give the new administration time to review what USAID’s $30 billion budget for 2025 is being used on.
Rubio announced Monday he is now the acting director of USAID.
But some Republicans have been sounding the alarm on USAID for weeks, saying the agency is more focused on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) than diplomacy.
And some USAID receipts show it. DailyMail.com breaks down some of the most shocking ways the agency has spent U.S. taxpayer money.
HIV research about transgenders
The Wits Health Consortium, a South African research facility that studies the transmission of HIV among sex workers and transgender people, has received $30 million from USAID since 2018, federal data shows.
The South African research firm was awarded $38 million dollars in total, but the final $8 million which has yet to be allocated may be slashed after to Trump’s foreign aid review.
‘HIV epidemic control in South Africa pivots on the success of providing appropriate services for key populations, including sex workers (SWS), their clients, and transgender (TG) people,’ the award states.
According to the federal receipts, the award was made to develop ‘a model of provision of accessible clinical interventions for [sex workers].’
Millions to COVID lab in China
The White Coat Waste Project, an anti-animal experimentation group, also uncovered that USAID funded $38 million worth of grants that ended up going to the same lab where COVID-19 is believed to have originated from, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Serbian LGBTQ group
Another big ticket item that no longer will receive U.S. funding is a pro-LGBTQ organization in Serbia called ‘Grupa Izadji,’ which in English translates to ‘Group Come Out.’
This NGO received $1.5 million from Biden’s administration to ‘advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities, by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia.’
According to the grant, the Serbian group ‘will foster an environment that increases employment potential for LGBTQI+ persons, expands opportunities for LGBTQI+ entrepreneurs, and reduces workplace discrimination.’
However, Trump’s foreign aid freeze has cut off money from flowing to ‘Grupa Izadji,’ which was expected to be funded through the end of 2025.
Electric vehicles in Vietnam
Another costly foreign aid fund package approved under Joe Biden’s administration awarded $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam. Since the huge investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars there has been only one battery station built, avoiding a total of 260 gallons of gas, according to the USAID website.
An average semi-truck holds roughly, by comparison, about 130 gallons of gas. Other eye-popping USAID initiatives include funding for a documentary highlighting the agency’s efforts propping up the first transgender health care clinic in India.
Trans care clinics
The agency also helped open TransCare Clinic, an operation established to ‘address ongoing gaps in transgender health care across Vietnam,’ according to a September 2024 USAID press release.
LGBTQ initiatives globally
USAID established in 2023 a LGBTQI+ policy to help advance non-heterosexual objectives around the globe.
The policy ‘advances USAID’s commitment to supporting protection, inclusion, and human rights for all so that LGBTQI+ individuals are able to live with dignity and free from all forms of violence, discrimination, stigma, and criminalization,’ a memo announcing the program declared.
Beyond USAID, other taxpayer-funded initiatives have also caught the eyes of GOP lawmakers eager to cut necessary programs or undeserving recipients from federal aid programs.
Operas in Colombia
For example, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs approved $25,000 for an opera in Colombia in order to increase ‘transgender representation’ in the arts. In addition to the government funding the group received $22,000 in private funding as well.
‘So, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia. That was a real one,’ House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast revealed to DailyMail.com last week.
Peruvian trans comic books
The Peruvian trans comic book program received $32,000 under former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to federal documents. Mast said: ‘Let’s see, there was a transgender comic book, we’re trying to get our hands on the actual comic book, in Peru. And I heard it’s reasonably risqué.’
Efforts to ‘expand atheism’ abroad
Mast has also descrbied how the U.S. has spent $500,000 to expand atheism in Nepal.
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Senior USAid officials put on leave after denying access to Musk’s Doge team
After standoff, Doge members gained control over access system, letting them lock out workers and read emails
Two senior security officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been put on administrative leave after they blocked efforts by members of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to access sensitive data from the agency, five current and former USAid officials have told the Guardian.
The demands led to a tense standoff during which a senior deputy to Musk threatened to call the US marshals in to grant access to the building. The officials said John Voorhees, USAid’s director of security, and a deputy blocked efforts by members of Doge, a special group that Trump has created, to physically access restricted areas.
The confrontation and Voorhees’ suspension was first reported by CNN and confirmed by USAid officials. The Doge officials gained control over the access control system, which would allow them to lock out employees and read emails. They also sought personnel files and turnstile data, two people said.
Musk’s deputies may also have sought access to Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs, and servers used to access sensitive cables with top-secret classifications. Four members of Doge have been granted regular access to USAid as the administration has suspended dozens of senior staff and furloughed hundreds more at the bureau for humanitarian assistance who help the agency respond to urgent crises around the world.
Katie Miller, who serves on the advisory board for Doge and is married to Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, wrote on X that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances”, following an AP report that Doge officials did manage to access the materials, which included intelligence reports.
The Doge crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, the newswire reported.
USAid continued to abruptly suspend career staffers through Sunday, with the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureaux cut off from their email. More than 100 career staffers at USAid have now been put on administrative leave, according to reports confirmed to the Guardian by one current and one former USAid official.
“We’re literally coming to work each day waiting to get the email that we’re supposed to go,” said one current USAid official who has not been suspended. “It is very much a terror feeling in that building right now.”
USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America First” policy which is already sending shock waves around the world. Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.
Musk has said that USAid should be shut down as the Trump administration is said to be mulling various strategies to downsize the agency or potentially fold it into the state department. CBS News reported that JD Vance has been put in charge of figuring out next steps for USAid.
“USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote on X, the social network that he owns. “Time for it to die.” In another post, he referred to the agency in the past tense, saying it “was a viper’s nest of radical left-marxists who hate America”.
In a social media discussion on X early on Monday, he said he was working to shut down the agency. “It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agreed it should be shut down.
Musk formed Doge with the stated goal of finding ways to reduce the federal workforce and slash regulations.
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