Pete Marocco, Trump official who oversaw dismantling of USAID, abruptly leaves State Department role
The President Trump-appointed official who oversaw the dismantling of USAID has abruptly left his role after less than three months in the job, a senior US official has said.
Pete Marocco had been serving as director for the Office of Foreign Assistance since January for the State Department, and masterminded the shutting down of the US Agency for International Development during his brief tenure as its deputy administrator.
In his time in the post, Marocco?worked alongside Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) but also clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to officials.
“Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance,” a senior official told the Wall Street Journal.
“He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission. He is no longer at State.”
Marocco?only learned that his role was coming to an end during a White House meeting late last week when he was asked to turn in his agency badge and laptop, a person close to him told the WSJ.
As recently as last Thursday, he held a “listening session” at the State Department to discuss the future of foreign assistance and seek input, a source familiar with the event told Reuters.”I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people,” Marocco?said in an internal email after his return to the State Department less than a month ago.
He had allegedly clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the extent of the cuts, which saw 83% of USAID funding to overseas projects canceled since President Trump’s inauguration.
Marocco?reportedly pushed for deeper, more far-reaching cuts during a 90-day review of US assistance programs, while Rubio had advocated for saving more lifesaving initiatives, according to officials.
A US Marine Corps veteran, Marocco also served in President Trump’s first administration in various roles at the State Department and USAID as well as in the Pentagon and the Commerce Department.
The State Department is forecast to deliver a reorganization plan today to the Office of Management and Budget, explaining how it will fold the remainder of USAID into its infrastructure.
“We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” Rubio said in a statement last month announcing plans to reduce USAID staff by even larger numbers.
The?State Department formally shuttered USAID?last month after the Trump administration won a court victory that had challenged the DOGE cost-cutting actions.
With an annual $40 billion budget, USAID was responsible for funding critical health care and foreign programs, but had also been slammed for years by Republicans for funding left-wing programs.
House Foreign Affairs?Committee?chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.) had?called out several USAID grants?in February — including $2.5 million?for electric vehicles in Vietnam, $47,000 for “a transgender opera in Colombia” and $32,000 for the production of a Peruvian “transgender comic book,”?the Daily Mail?first reported.
