Trump has ‘agreed’ USAID should be shut down, Musk says

A new in-depth Middle East Forum report revealed that USAID has given $164 million taxpayer dollars to Islamist groups, including $122 million to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters, justifies the ongoing overhaul of the agency.

By The Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

The U.S. Agency for International Development is on the cusp of being shuttered, according the Trump administration’s billionaire adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — who has been wrestling for control of the agency in recent days.

Early Monday, Musk held a live session on X Spaces, previously known as Twitter Spaces, and said that he spoke in detail about USAID with the president. “He agreed we should shut it down,” Musk said.

“It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said. “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.”

His comments come after the 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.

Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.

Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.

The current and former U.S. officials had knowledge of the incident and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.

Musk on Sunday responded to an X post about the news by saying, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” He followed with additional posts on X about the aid agency.

Kate Miller, who serves on an advisory board for DOGE, said in a separate post that no classified material was accessed “without proper security clearances.”

It comes a day after DOGE 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.

Musk formed DOGE in cooperation with the Trump administration with the stated goal of finding ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations.

USAID, whose website vanished Saturday, 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.

The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance that has shut down much of USAID’s humanitarian, development and security 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.

The U.S. is by far the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID administering billions of dollars in assistance in more than 100 countries.

But the agency has clashed with both the Trump administration and the Biden White House, pushing claims of mass starvation in the northern Gaza Strip which drew a rare rebuke from then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who noted the calculations were based on old, inaccurate estimates of the number of Gazans living in the northern district.

A new in-depth Middle East Forum report revealed that USAI) has given $164 million taxpayer dollars to Islamist groups, including $122 million to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters, justifies the ongoing overhaul of the agency.

Last month, the Trump administration accused USAID of using tens of millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds to supply the Gaza Strip with condoms – an item used in recent years by Gazan terrorists in place of balloons to produce makeshift incendiary bombs against Israel.

The Trump administration listed a dozen other programs funded by USAID it said constituted “waste and abuse,” including $1.5 million earmarked for a Serbian program advancing workplace “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” tens of thousands of dollars for an Irish “DEI musical,” $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam, tens of thousands of dollars for a “transgender comic book” in Peru, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, millions of dollars to fund tourism in Egypt, and funding for a group linked to terrorist organizations.

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.

Elon MuskTrump administrationUSAID