Politics

USAID staffers told to stay out of DC headquarters after Musk said Trump agreed to shut it down: ‘Just a ball of worms’

WASHINGTON — USAID workers received an email Monday telling them to stay out of the agency’s DC headquarters — as Elon Musk and the White House moved to “shut it down” and reorganize it under the State Department.

Staffers with the US Agency for International Development were ordered “at the direction of Agency leadership” to “work remotely,” except for “personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contracted by senior leadership,” according to an agency-wide email reviewed by The Post. 

“Further guidance will be forthcoming,” the missive said.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump embrace at the inauguration. AP

The email appeared to have been drafted by Gavin Kliger, an engineer at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been charged with trimming federal spending from the agency’s roughly $40 billion budget as well as other Executive Branch departments.

The US is the largest funder of foreign aid internationally, including through the USAID, and Republicans have routinely slammed the agency’s work, particularly for having been wasteful of taxpayers’ money and unnecessarily promoting a left-wing agenda abroad.

Last month, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast called out several controversial DEI expenditures, which ended up being halted by a 90-day foreign-funding pause imposed after Trump took office.

For example, Mast (R-Fla.) faulted the Biden administration for approving $1.5 million in US funding for employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to the Serbian pro-LGBT Grupa Izadji, which translates as “Group Come Out.”

The Foreign Affairs Committee chairman also slammed other USAID grants — including $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam, $47,000 for “a trasgender opera in Colombia” and $32,000 for the production of a Peruvian “transgender comic book,” the Daily Mail first reported.

The questionable funding was on top of the millions of dollars doled out to Chinese research labs in Wuhan, where the virus causing COVID-19 emerged more than five years ago.

Security personnel works inside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2025. REUTERS

Millions more in funding was sent for relief in the Gaza Strip — even while being marked at “high-risk” of falling into the hands of Hamas terrorists by the agency’s own watchdog.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Monday afternoon that the agency had a?“level of insubordination [that] makes it impossible to conduct a sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid writ large should have.”

He also revealed in a letter to congressional lawmakers that Foreign Assistance Director Peter Marocco would serve as deputy administrator of USAID to “review” and reorganize the agency into the State Department.

Trump, 78, told reporters Sunday night that the USAID had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.”

Musk said hours later on an X Spaces event that the president had “agreed” with the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder that “we should shut it down.

“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm,” Musk told listeners on the livestream Monday morning. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”

The largest share of USAID’s $43.4 billion budget in fiscal year 2023 went toward foreign governance assistance ($16.8 billion), followed by humanitarian aid ($10.5 billion), health care initiatives ($7 billion), administrative efforts ($3.5 billion) and agriculture, education and infrastructure projects ($3.1 billion), according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in January.

Musk has alleged that the agency is a “criminal organization” and “viper’s nest of radical left marxists who hate America.” Getty Images

The top 10 of the 130 or so nations that received US taxpayer funds that year were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria, the report shows.

Trump’s funding freeze on foreign assistance has since shut down many of USAID’s aid programs worldwide — compelling thousands of layoffs by nongovernmental groups — but the agency’s near-closure has also barred access to security apps critical for some agency staff abroad in conflict zones.

Other websites have popped up tracking the thousands of job losses associated with the stop-work order imposed by the Trump administration last week — as well as an interactive map showing which nations will be adversely affected.

Congressional Democrats held a press conference outside USAID headquarters Monday, protesting alongside other critics that the shuttering of the agency was unconstitutional.

An employee of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) who wished to remain anonymous protest outside of the USAID headquarters on February 03, 2025 in Washington, DC. Getty Images

“This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like,” claimed far-left “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “What Trump and Elon and all of their cronies are trying to do, is take away the constitutional power of Congress.”

Musk and DOGE cost-cutters had apparently butted heads in-person with USAID officials over the weekend.

Two USAID security officials were placed on leave Saturday after refusing to let the DOGE team access classified material in restricted areas at the agency’s headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building near the White House.

The agency’s chief of staff, Matt Hopson, who had just been appointed by the second Trump administration, subsequently resigned, though it’s unclear if his departure was in response to the apparently unlawful incident.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created USAID by an executive order to provide humanitarian, developmental and security assistance, prompting some critics of the agency to point out Trump could simply revoke the order.

Musk has even alleged that the agency is a “criminal organization” and “viper’s nest of radical left marxists who hate America,” as he and other critics have accused it of footing the bill for highly dubious causes.

“Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?” he posted Sunday on X, highlighting $53 million that USAID contributed to the since-debarred nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance between 2004 and 2022.

According to a June 2023 Government Accountability Office report, USAID approved $854,384 in grants to the University of California, Davis, which funneled the money on to EcoHealth Alliance for research on bat coronaviruses at Wuhan University and the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology — both of which are located in the city where the COVID-19 pandemic erupted more than five years ago.

EcoHealth Alliance used the funding to experiment with biological samples from around 1,500 people exposed to bats and other animals and “test, clone and sequence” from “samples that test positive for viruses such as coronaviruses or influenza viruses.”

Officials at the National Institutes of Health later conceded that tests conducted by the Manhattan-based nonprofit with the Chinese research team constituted so-called “gain-of-function” research, which increases the infectiousness of viruses, and made at least one viral strand at least 10,000 times more infectious.

Researchers at the Chinese lab were also among the first to contract SARS-CoV-2.

The Department of Health and Human Services halted grants to EcoHealth last year — and barred it last month from receiving any federal funding for the next five years.

Asked by Sen. Rand Paul last year whether she was aware her agency funded gain-of-function research, then-USAID Administrator Samantha Power said there was “no evidence” of the funding going out the door.

Paul (R-Ky.) in an interview with The Post last week revealed that he had sought information from Power about USAID’s involvement for months afterward — but faced strong “resistance.

“I don’t think she ever fully understood,” he said, “or she did and was just resisting it because she knew she’d get a black eye for funding gain-of-function research.”

Earlier in the weekend, Musk and DOGE workers also accessed sensitive information about Social Security and Medicare payments at the Treasury Department, prompting another senior official to resign, according to the Washington Post.

universo-virtual.com
buytrendz.net
thisforall.net
benchpressgains.com
qthzb.com
mindhunter9.com
dwjqp1.com
secure-signup.net
ahaayy.com
soxtry.com
tressesindia.com
puresybian.com
krpano-chs.com
cre8workshop.com
hdkino.org
peixun021.com
qz786.com
utahperformingartscenter.org
maw-pr.com
zaaksen.com
ypxsptbfd7.com
worldqrmconference.com
shangyuwh.com
eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com
playminecraftfreeonline.com
trekvietnamtour.com
your-business-articles.com
essaywritingservice10.com
hindusamaaj.com
joggingvideo.com
wandercoups.com
onlinenewsofindia.com
worldgraphic-team.com
bnsrz.com
wormblaster.net
tongchengchuyange0004.com
internetknowing.com
breachurch.com
peachesnginburlesque.com
dataarchitectoo.com
clientfunnelformula.com
30pps.com
cherylroll.com
ks2252.com
webmanicura.com
osostore.com
softsmob.com
sofietsshotel.com
facetorch.com
nylawyerreview.com
apapromotions.com
shareparelli.com
goeaglepointe.com
thegreenmanpubphuket.com
karotorossian.com
publicsensor.com
taiwandefence.com
epcsur.com
odskc.com
inzziln.info
leaiiln.info
cq-oa.com
dqtianshun.com
southstills.com
tvtv98.com
thewellington-hotel.com
bccaipiao.com
colectoresindustrialesgs.com
shenanddcg.com
capriartfilmfestival.com
replicabreitlingsale.com
thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com
gkmcww.com
mbnkbj.com
andrewbrennandesign.com
cod54.com
luobinzhang.com
bartoysdirect.com
taquerialoscompadresdc.com
aaoodln.info
amcckln.info
drvrnln.info
dwabmln.info
fcsjoln.info
hlonxln.info
kcmeiln.info
kplrrln.info
fatcatoons.com
91guoys.com
signupforfreehosting.com
faithfirst.net
zjyc28.com
tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com
nhuan6.com
oldgardensflowers.com
lightupthefloor.com
bahamamamas-stjohns.com
ly2818.com
905onthebay.com
fonemenu.com
notanothermovie.com
ukrainehighclassescort.com
meincmagazine.com
av-5858.com
yallerdawg.com
donkeythemovie.com
corporatehospitalitygroup.com
boboyy88.com
miteinander-lernen.com
dannayconsulting.com
officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com
forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net
generictadalafil-canada.net
guitarlessonseastlondon.com
lesliesrestaurants.com
mattyno9.com
nri-homeloans.com
rtgvisas-qatar.com
salbutamolventolinonline.net
sportsinjuries.info
topsedu.xyz
xmxm7.com
x332.xyz
sportstrainingblog.com
autopartspares.com
readguy.net
soniasegreto.com
bobbygdavis.com
wedsna.com
rgkntk.com
bkkmarketplace.com
zxqcwx.com
breakupprogram.com
boxcardc.com
unblockyoutubeindonesia.com
fabulousbookmark.com
beat-the.com
guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com
magie-marketing.com
kingstonliteracy.com
guitaraffinity.com
eurelookinggoodapparel.com
howtolosecheekfat.net
marioncma.org
oliviadavismusic.com
shantelcampbellrealestate.com
shopleborn13.com
topindiafree.com
v-visitors.net
qazwsxedcokmijn.com
parabis.net
terriesandelin.com
luxuryhomme.com
studyexpanse.com
ronoom.com
djjky.com
053hh.com
originbluei.com
baucishotel.com
33kkn.com
intrinsiqresearch.com
mariaescort-kiev.com
mymaguk.com
sponsored4u.com
crimsonclass.com
bataillenavale.com
searchtile.com
ze-stribrnych-struh.com
zenithalhype.com
modalpkv.com
bouisset-lafforgue.com
useupload.com
37r.net
autoankauf-muenster.com
bantinbongda.net
bilgius.com
brabustermagazine.com
indigrow.org
miicrosofts.net
mysmiletravel.com
selinasims.com
spellcubesapp.com
usa-faction.com
snn01.com
hope-kelley.com
bancodeprofissionais.com
zjccp99.com
liturgycreator.com
weedsmj.com
majorelenco.com
colcollect.com
androidnews-jp.com
hypoallergenicdogsnames.com
dailyupdatez.com
foodphotographyreviews.com
cricutcom-setup.com
chprowebdesign.com
katyrealty-kanepa.com
tasramar.com
bilgipinari.org
four-am.com
indiarepublicday.com
inquick-enbooks.com
iracmpi.com
kakaschoenen.com
lsm99flash.com
nana1255.com
ngen-niagara.com
technwzs.com
virtualonlinecasino1345.com
wallpapertop.net
nova-click.com
abeautifulcrazylife.com
diggmobile.com
denochemexicana.com
eventhalfkg.com
medcon-taiwan.com
life-himawari.com
myriamshomes.com
nightmarevue.com
allstarsru.com
bestofthebuckeyestate.com
bestofthefirststate.com
bestwireless7.com
declarationintermittent.com
findhereall.com
jingyou888.com
lsm99deal.com
lsm99galaxy.com
moozatech.com
nuagh.com
patliyo.com
philomenamagikz.net
rckouba.net
saturnunipessoallda.com
tallahasseefrolics.com
thematurehardcore.net
totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com
velislavakaymakanova.com
vermontenergetic.com
sizam-design.com
kakakpintar.com
begorgeouslady.com
1800birks4u.com
2wheelstogo.com
6strip4you.com
bigdata-world.net
emailandco.net
gacapal.com
jharpost.com
krishnaastro.com
lsm99credit.com
mascalzonicampani.com
sitemapxml.org
thecityslums.net
topagh.com
flairnetwebdesign.com
bangkaeair.com
beneventocoupon.com
noternet.org
oqtive.com
smilebrightrx.com
decollage-etiquette.com
1millionbestdownloads.com
7658.info
bidbass.com
devlopworldtech.com
digitalmarketingrajkot.com
fluginfo.net
naqlafshk.com
passion-decouverte.com
playsirius.com
spacceleratorintl.com
stikyballs.com
top10way.com
yokidsyogurt.com
zszyhl.com
16firthcrescent.com
abogadolaboralistamd.com
apk2wap.com
aromacremeria.com
banparacard.com
bosmanraws.com
businessproviderblog.com
caltonosa.com
calvaryrevivalchurch.org
chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com
cheminotsgardcevennes.com
cooksspot.com
cqxzpt.com
deesywig.com
deltacartoonmaps.com
despixelsetdeshommes.com
duocoracaobrasileiro.com
fareshopbd.com
goodpainspills.com
kobisitecdn.com
makaigoods.com
mgs1454.com
piccadillyresidences.com
radiolaondafresca.com
rubendorf.com
searchengineimprov.com
sellmyhrvahome.com
shugahouseessentials.com
sonihullquad.com
subtractkilos.com
valeriekelmansky.com
vipasdigitalmarketing.com
voolivrerj.com
zeelonggroup.com
1015southrockhill.com
10x10b.com
111-online-casinos.com
191cb.com
3665arpentunitd.com
aitesonics.com
bag-shokunin.com
brightotech.com
communication-digitale-services.com
covoakland.org
dariaprimapack.com
freefortniteaccountss.com
gatebizglobal.com
global1entertainmentnews.com
greatytene.com
hiroshiwakita.com
iktodaypk.com
jahatsakong.com
meadowbrookgolfgroup.com
newsbharati.net
platinumstudiosdesign.com
slotxogamesplay.com
strikestaruk.com
trucosdefortnite.com
ufabetrune.com
weddedtowhitmore.com
12940brycecanyonunitb.com
1311dietrichoaks.com
2monarchtraceunit303.com
601legendhill.com
850elaine.com
adieusolasomade.com
andora-ke.com
bestslotxogames.com
cannagomcallen.com
endlesslyhot.com
iestpjva.com
ouqprint.com
pwmaplefest.com
qtylmr.com
rb88betting.com
buscadogues.com
1007macfm.com
born-wild.com
growthinvests.com
promocode-casino.com
proyectogalgoargentina.com
wbthompson-art.com
whitemountainwheels.com
7thavehvl.com
developmethis.com
funkydogbowties.com
travelodgegrandjunction.com
gao-town.com
globalmarketsuite.com
blogshippo.com
hdbka.com
proboards67.com
outletonline-michaelkors.com
kalkis-research.com
thuthuatit.net
buckcash.com
hollistercanada.com
docterror.com
asadart.com
vmayke.org
erwincomputers.com
dirimart.org
okkii.com
loteriasdecehegin.com
mountanalog.com
healingtaobritain.com
ttxmonitor.com
bamthemes.com
nwordpress.com
11bolabonanza.com
avgo.top