What is USAID and why is Elon Musk trying to kill it?

During the early morning of Monday, Feb. 3, protesters flooded the Washington, D.C. street that marks the entrance to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The group wasn't trying to enter the federal premises in a violent takeover, but rather act as a wall of defense between the government agency and a directive to cease the organization's work as a matter of fiduciary foresight. Later that afternoon, the USAID office shut down. The official USAID website is no longer available.

The decisions came after Elon Musk — newly-appointed leader of DOGE, a non-government agency with no official government powers or legal precedent for intervening in federal spending — declared he would be cutting off USAID, halting tens of billion in foreign aid spending. Musk, incentivized by President Trump's commitment to "cut federal spending" set his sights on what he called an "evil" "criminal organization," and a "viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America."

Federal employees were then barred from entering the D.C. premises, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared he would step in as de-facto USAID administrator, calling the humanitarian organization "a completely unresponsive agency" that needed to be "aligned" with U.S. foreign policy.

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What is USAID?

The U.S. Agency for International Development operates the federal government's global aid budget and associated programs, serving as "the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms," according to the agency's archived website (accessible on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine).

USAID was established in the 1960s under an executive order by President John F. Kennedy, a result of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act intended to streamline foreign aid and efficiently administer humanitarian aid on behalf of the U.S. government. USAID is overseen by the president, secretary of state, and the National Security Council, and seeks to invest in longterm economic assistance abroad as part of the country's larger foreign policy.

USAID operates through dozens of international field missions in more than 60 countries, each with a different focus area, including disaster and poverty relief, socio-economic development, and assistance with global issues — USAID frequently administers programs globally through collaborations with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Why did Elon Musk target USAID?

To put it simply, the agency oversees a lot of crucial spending. As of 2023, USAID was allocated around half of the U.S. government's total budget for international aid, a sum of about $68 billion.

Following Trump's order, and then reversal, of a government-wide federal spending freeze, Musk took aim at USAID as part of his mandate to rid the U.S. government of so-called corruption and superfluous spending. And while both Trump and Rubio had declared humanitarian aid would be waived under the auditing process spearheaded by DOGE, Musk moved forward with an attempt to eliminate USAID as a singular entity. Trump had recently made references to removing and replacing the "radical lunatics" overseeing USAID, as well. On Feb. 3, USAID Director for Security John Vorhees and Deputy Director for Security Brian McGill were fired.

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Simultaneously, Musk has been pushing for greater access and control over federal systems and their offices. After requesting and being denied access to internal systems through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Feb. 2, Musk reportedly pushed to oust administrators who had refused his requests, with two anonymous OPM officials losing access to the system shortly after. Musk and his allies later gained control of internal U.S. Treasury databases.

According to the BBC, USAID's activities will be rolled into the workings of the State Department with a significant reduction in funding and workforce. It's unclear how this will effect ongoing programs, including charity contributions, abroad.

What can DOGE actually do?

DOGE, otherwise known as the Department of Government Efficiency, was announced by Trump in November, shortly after he won the 2024 presidential election. The department's mandate, at the time, was described as modernizing federal systems and slashing inefficiency — Trump called it a new "Manhattan Project" set to overhaul the government's IT systems.

But DOGE is not a government agency with the same powers as the offices it's trying to eliminate. Instead, DOGE was established as an advising body under the United States Digital Service (now the U.S. DOGE SERVICE) and the Office for Personnel Management. Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, it should only be able to exercise advisory powers to federal spending, while Congress retains oversight and decision-making for large budgetary actions, despite the promises of Trump and Musk.

In practice, however, DOGE and its leader are exercising power they may not legally have a right to, and operating on a path that some refer to as a forcible takeover of government.