Musk’s Doge aims at ‘Viper’s Nest’ Federal Agency

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by technical billionaire Elon Musk, is aiming for the US Agency of International Development (USAID) and, according to Senior Congress Sources, moved to take control of the independent agency over the weekend of the weekend.

The Senior Congress Sources told Fox News that more than 50 senior in USAID employees were placed in administrative leave and exposed to a gag order, which means they were not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the agency without approval.

Signs were also removed from USAid’s headquarters in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC, and the Doge team took over the computer systems, the sources say. USID is responsible for distributing civilian foreign aid and development assistance to countries across the globe.

Agency administered about $ 40 billion in appropriations last year, According to the Congress Research Service.

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President Donald Trump complimented Musk’s decision making on Sunday during a quick interaction with journalists on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. When asked if he felt Musk “delivered his promises,” the president replied with a lot of praise.

“I think Elon is doing a good job,” Trump said. “He’s a big cost cutter. Sometimes we don’t agree with it and won’t go where he wants to go, but I think he’s doing a good job. He’s a smart guy, very smart and he’s much in cutting the budget of our federal government.

On Sunday, Associated Press reported that Trump administration placed two top security managers at USAID on leave after refusing to turn classified material into limited areas to DODE.

After initially declining access to USAid’s classified information, DODE GETTING THIS ACCESS SATURDAY, which allowed them to see things like intelligence reports, a current and a former US official told AP.

The DOGE team members lacked high enough security ready to access the information, so the two USAID – security officials – John Voorhees and Deputy Brian McGill – felt they were legally obliged to refuse access.

On Sunday, Musk was aiming for USAID on his social media platform X and wrote: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for dying.”

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He also wrote several other posts about the agency and said that things like “USAID were a viper’s nest of radical left Marxists who hate America” ​​and “USAID is evil.”

The latter was in response to a post suggesting that USAID helped fund coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, referring to an interaction sent to Forbes between Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., And now it Former USAD administrator Samantha Power in April 2023.

Trump reiterated Musk’s post by saying that USAID has been driven by “a bunch of radical madman” and his administration is “to get them out.”

ABC News reported that those familiar with USAID questioned whether the movements in USAID were made in an attempt to move the agency under the Ministry of State, where there could be better responsibility.

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Senator Cory Booker, DN.J., turned to social media on Sunday to sound “dismantling” of USAID.

“Trump and Musk are careless and illegally dismantling USAID, an important national security agency that saves lives, promotes American interests and promotes peace,” Booker wrote. “Their malicious actions put the health of people, especially children, at serious risk and will certainly lead to future public health and migration crises in the United States – so much less to suffer across the globe.”

Last week, at least 56 USAID officials were placed in administrative leave with full pay and benefits, and hundreds of contractors based in Washington and other places were dismissed.

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The actions came after State Secretary Marco Rubio, who appeared in Trump’s executive order, paused all US foreign aid that was funded by or through the Ministry of State and USAID.

The 90-day break has stopped thousands of US-funded humanitarian, development and security programs around the world and forced aid organizations to dismiss hundreds of employees because they cannot make payrolls.

Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo and Associated Press contributed to this report.