Turmoil as Trump and Musk take aim at top US aid agency

WASHINGTON, United States

The Trump administration reportedly intends to merge the US government's main overseas aid agency with the state department, as workers were asked to stay out of its Washington headquarters on Monday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he was now the acting head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the agency that distributes billions of dollars in aid around the world.

Democratic lawmakers have called it an "illegal, unconstitutional" move that would hurt poor people abroad, harm national security and reduce US influence on the global stage.

President Donald Trump and one of his top advisers, billionaire Elon Musk, have been strongly critical of the agency.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump alleged the agency run by "radical left lunatics" was getting away with "tremendous fraud", but did not provide names or details.

USAID was established in 1961 by President John F Kennedy, and has around 10,000 employees and a budget of nearly $40bn (£32.25bn), out of a total of $68bn in US government foreign aid spending.

Calling USAID "a completely unresponsive agency", Secretary Rubio said that a lot of functions of the organisation "are going to continue".

"They're going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy," he told reporters in El Salvador.

It's not clear how the administration plans to implement such a change.

The announcement follows comments from Musk, who heads an unofficial cost-cutting agency, that the administration plans to shut USAID down. Over the weekend, two top security officials were placed on leave and the agency's website went dark.

Workers were told to stay home on Monday. Hundreds of employees were also locked out of their email, according to an internal message obtained by the BBC.

Outside USAID offices Democratic Party lawmakers said the moves were against the law and that shuttering the agency would harm national security.

"It's not only a gift to our adversaries... it is plain illegal," said Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Maryland Congressman Johnny Olszewski cited reports that prison guards in Syria responsible for containing thousands of Islamic State fighters nearly walked off the job after the earlier freeze on US aid.

"This is real life, this is dangerous and this is serious," he said.

Others alleged that Musk was motivated by his business interests.

"Elon Musk makes billions of dollars based off of his business with China, and China is cheering at this action today," claimed Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Musk has been put in charge of an initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a team that is not an official government body but given broad leeway by Trump to slash government spending.

Its legal status is unclear, as is its authority to order the shutdown of government programmes. It has already been the subject of several court challenges.

Over the weekend, Musk posted dozens of messages including allegations that the agency was rife with fraud and corruption.

On X, the social network that he owns, he called USAID "evil", a "criminal organisation" and a "radical-left political psy op" - short for "psychological operation", a term commonly used online to allege a conspiracy or cover-up.

In a live stream on X early Monday, he told followers: "You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair. ... We're shutting it down."

US media on Monday, citing unnamed White House sources, said Musk had been given an unpaid job as a part-time "special government employee", a status which would potentially make him subject to several rules about financial disclosures and conflicts of interest.

At the White House, Trump defended Musk's handling of the situation, saying the tech tycoon has "access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him, and it's only if we agree with him".

"Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval," he said.

USAID distributes billions in aid to non-governmental organisations, aid groups and nonprofits around the world.

With its website down, several key information hubs, including an international famine tracker and decades of aid records, were unavailable.

Top officials have been placed on leave or resigned in the last several days following clashes with Musk's Doge, including over requests that employees of the unofficial department be given access to a highly secure area used for reviewing classified information, the Washington Post and CNN reported this weekend.

"No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances," Katie Miller, Doge spokesperson, wrote on X.

USAID director for security John Vorhees and deputy Director for Security Brian McGill, were both placed on administrative leave as a result, CBS reports.

A top political appointee, USAID chief of staff Matt Hopson, also resigned, the Washington Post reported.