As soon as he took office, President Donald Trump and a group of unelected wealthy people and political designees set their eyes on disassembling U.S. foreign aid. In an obvious move, Elon Musk announced that Trump decided to “shut down” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the just-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) managing the change.
USAID staff received notification that the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters had been unexpectedly closed; by the end of the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would take over as director of the agency, with Peter Marocco, who allegedly partook in the January 6 riot, acting as deputy administrator. Musk’s DOGE group has already put senior USAID officials on vacation, discontinued security personnel who declined to permit access to classified materials, and acquired access to sensitive government information.
The forced overthrow comes after two weeks of seizures of foreign aid. On January 20, President Trump inscribed an executive order halting almost all U.S. foreign aid for 90 days, asserting a need to reassess taxpayer dollars paid abroad. Days later, Secretary Rubio allocated further advice that forced U.S. officials to give “stop work” directives to contractors, nongovernmental associations, and aid bodies; in reaction to strong resistance, Secretary Rubio later gave a release for core “life-saving” humanitarian demands, but its scope remains unclear.
Overall, the Trump administration’s efforts over the past two weeks have forced extreme chaos and disorder across the world. U.N. agencies, international relief associations, and U.S. aid bodies are running to assess and prevent the harm to lifesaving schedules and more. While some of the administration’s actions are already subject to legal challenges and intense pushback from members of Congress, many of whom were refused access to USAID headquarters this week, these activities have real and lasting outcomes for the US and people around the world.
Trump’s episodes on assistance are not regarding cutting waste or creating the government more effective; they’re almost using direct force to complete Project 2025’s promises to put to dying U.S. foreign aid spending and “serve the President’s agenda.” The activities are in line with Elon Musk’s actions to target and overturn unpopular policy preferences by removing scientists, engineers, and health professionals and by cutting associated spending to make space for tax cuts for the ultrarich.
Musk posted that he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” But cutting the U.S. foreign aid budget is a textbook illustration of penny-wise, pound-foolish. In fiscal year 2023, USAID operated a funding of $43 billion, including approximately 0.7 percent of the total U.S. funding. Boosting Trump’s 2017 tax stakes, by contrast, would represent the equal of more than nine USAIDs each year: $400 billion in fees that would disproportionately help the ultrawealthy.
