WASHINGTON — Staff members of the U.S. Agency for International Development were told to avoid going to the agency’s main office in Washington on Monday, as stated in a notice they received. This directive followed an announcement by billionaire Elon Musk that President Donald Trump had agreed with him to close the agency.
Workers at USAID mentioned that they observed over 600 colleagues reporting that they were unable to access the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those who were still able to log in received emails stating that, based on instructions from the agency’s leadership, the main office building would be off-limits to staff on Monday, February 3.
These events unfolded after Musk, who is spearheading an unusual civilian assessment of the federal government with the approval of the Republican president, revealed on Monday morning that he had discussed the fate of the U.S. aid and development agency with Trump, and that “he agreed we should close it.”
“It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”
“We’re shutting it down,” he said.
Musk, Trump and some Republican lawmakers have targeted the U.S. aid and development agency, which oversees humanitarian, development and security programs in some 120 countries, in increasingly strident terms, accusing it of promoting liberal causes.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, earlier carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.
Democratic lawmakers have protested the moves, saying Trump lacks constitutional authority to shut down USAID without congressional approval and decrying Musk’s accessing sensitive government-held information through his Trump-sanctioned inspections of federal government agencies and programs.
USAID, whose website vanished Saturday without explanation, has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs.
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” Trump said to reporters about USAID on Sunday night.
Musk’s and Trump’s comments came with Secretary of State Marco Rubio out of the country, in Central America, on his first trip abroad in office. Rubio has not spoken publicly about any plans to shut down USAID.
The Trump administration and Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance that has shut down much of USAID’s aid programs worldwide – compelling thousands of layoffs by aid organizations – and ordered furloughs and leaves that have gutted the agency’s leadership and staff in Washington..
Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term, was a leader in enforcing the shutdown. USAID staffers say they believe that agency outsiders with visitors’ badges asking questions of employees inside the Washington headquarters are members of Musk’s DOGE team.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a post on Sunday that Trump was allowing Musk to access people’s personal information and shut down government funding.
“We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm,” the Massachusetts senator said, without giving details.
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