US international aid agency staff locked out of offices as Trump seeks its closure
WASHINGTON
Staff across the US Agency for International Development (USAID) were abruptly informed Monday to stay out of their headquarters as tech billionaire Elon Musk said President Donald Trump has “agreed” to shutter the agency.
An email went out to all employees just after midnight informing them that “at the direction of Agency leadership” their downtown Washington, DC headquarters “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025.”
“Personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” a copy of the email sent to Anadolu said. “Further guidance will be forthcoming.”
The note cites directions from “Agency leadership,” but it is unclear to whom that refers. The USAID website has been offline since Saturday without any explanation.
The notice was sent just as Musk, who has been leading Trump’s effort to downsize the federal government, said the president has agreed to shutter the department.
“As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms,” he said during a livestream on his X platform. “If you got an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. But if you got actually just a ball of worms, it’s hopeless. And USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple you just got to basically get rid of the whole thing. That is why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair.”
Trump himself described USAID on Sunday as being “run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision.”
The agency oversees all of the US government’s foreign aid and development operations, which have ground to a halt at the president’s direction shortly after he assumed office Jan. 20. That includes efforts to combat emerging pandemics.
Multiple reports said that several senior officials have been removed from their posts, including two senior security officials who were dismissed Saturday after they refused to allow Musk’s representatives into restricted areas with classified materials. The officials with DOGE, as Musk’s commission is known, were eventually able to access the secure locations, according to the Washington Post.
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