(The Hill) — President Donald Trump and billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk have moved to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which spent some $30 billion last year on humanitarian, development and security aid to more than 100 countries.
Musk said Trump agreed with him that USAID should be shut down after the president said his administration will get the “lunatics” out of the agency before a decision is made about its future.
Trump then made Secretary of State Marco Rubio the acting head of USAID on Monday, and documents supporting USAID were put under the State Department’s website over the weekend, a signal of the Trump administration’s intent to merge USAID and the State Department.
Democrats are fuming over Trump’s actions and promising legal challenges. Republicans supportive of foreign aid are largely keeping quiet while Trump’s closest allies in Congress are cheering on the president’s move.
“I would be absolutely for, if that’s the path we go down, removing USAID as a separate department,” said Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mast also called for “purging” State Department personnel as he scrutinizes foreign assistance.
Here are five takeaways from the effort to shut down USAID:
Raises constitutional issues
Trump said Monday he didn’t think he would take an act of Congress to overhaul USAID, telling reporters there has been “tremendous fraud” in the agency. But Democrats and some legal experts disagree.
USAID was created by an executive order from President John F. Kennedy in 1961, and an act of Congress made it its own agency in 1998.
Reversing that would take an act of Congress and not a president unilaterally overriding the statute, according to the New York University School of Law’s “Just Security” blog. Additionally, the fiscal 2024 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act added a provision to require Congress to consult and be notified of any reorganization of USAID.
The Trump administration is looking at legal pathways the president could utilize to sign an executive order that would end USAID’s independence, Reuters reported Friday. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment about a potential order.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he is working with lawyers to get an injunction against some of Trump’s orders, related to protections for federal employees, USAID grant recipients and the agency’s operations in general.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who worked at the Africa bureau of USAID, argued in a post on social platform X that “Trump/Musk cannot unilaterally close USAID or transfer under State. USAID is codified by the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, 22 U.S.C. 6501 et seq,” referring to the 1998 act of Congress.
Underscores Trump, Musk distaste for foreign aid
Trump had sought to reduce foreign assistance since his first administration — aligning with his isolationist “America First” agenda — and attempted to merge the agency with the State Department, but bipartisan pushback nixed those plans.
As one of the first moves of his second administration, he signed an executive order to freeze foreign assistance for three months and directed officials to conduct a review of all of the programs to ensure they align with his vision of U.S. foreign policy.
Democrats have warned that pulling back on U.S. support globally could open the door for Chinese influence.
“Trump admin complains about China’s growing influence in Africa but then shuts down one of our best tools to fight this,” Kim said on X. “Their vindictive way of trying to shut down USAID sends signals all over the world that we are a nation at war with itself. It tells authoritarian adversaries that America is distracted and divided. It tells other nations we don’t care about them as China and others try to woo them to their side.”
Gives insights into DOGE’s direction
The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was tasked with finding ways to reduce spending and cut personnel from the federal government, and it has quickly put swaths of the federal government on alert.
Musk has railed against USAID on X, saying “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” USAID’s website has been taken offline, hundreds of contractors have been laid off and employees are being locked out of their accounts one by one without notice.
Two top security officials at USAID were reportedly placed on leave Saturday night after denying DOGE employees access to internal systems. And a USAID employee told The Hill their colleagues were being blocked from entering a second USAID office in southwest D.C. by men who identified themselves as part of the DOGE but later stepped aside.
USAID had a budget of $40 billion in 2023, which is less than the nearly $70.9 billion that Lockheed Martin, the government’s largest contractor, received that year, according to federal contracting data.
Musk’s decision to target the humanitarian aid organization sent shock waves and confusion through the aid community, with other agencies bracing to be the next target.
DOGE’s power under Trump increasing
The weekend attack on USAID occurred as Rubio was on diplomatic travel to Panama and Central America, underscoring the power Trump has placed in DOGE.
Rubio, while on record as supporting U.S. foreign assistance in the past, slammed USAID as “completely unresponsive” while speaking to reporters in El Salvador.
“I’m very troubled by these reports that they’ve been unwilling to cooperate with people who are asking simple questions,” Rubio said. “That level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct a sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid writ large should have.”
DOGE officials have also demanded access to the Department of Treasury payment systems that officials use to disburse funds.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday called Musk a special government employee and said he has “abided by all applicable federal laws.”
Trump said Musk can’t do anything without his approval, adding that the billionaire can only let people go “if we agree with him.”
Democrats try to rally in defense of USAID
Democratic lawmakers focused their anger at Musk and DOGE as they rallied in support of USAID, and warned of increased threats to America if it’s closed down.
“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that in the United States of America in the year 2025, we would be witnessing an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, and oligarchs and so many unelected individuals taking complete control of our federal government,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said.
But without Republicans joining in the pushback, Democrats may have to rely on the courts to check Trump’s authority.
“Since we don’t have many Republican colleagues who want to help us, we are doing everything we can with our colleagues through the courts to make sure that we uphold the rule of law,” Van Hollen said, speaking outside the USAID headquarters at a press conference Monday. “Elon Musk … may try to play dictator here in Washington, D.C., but he doesn’t get to shut down the agency for international development.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Monday he would put a blanket hold on all of Trump’s nominees to the State Department as long as the attacks on USAID persist.
Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.) urged Americans to put pressure on Republicans.
“We need your help, if you are represented by a Republican member of the House, a Republican member of the Senate, you need to call their offices, you need to show up in their offices you need to make your voice heard,” she said.
