Musk says Trump wants to shut down the US Foreign Aids Agency Down

On By Littum

Elon Musk said early Monday that President Trump believes the US Agency for International Development should be closed, adding the questions about administration’s plans for the US government’s leading agency for humanitarian assistance and development assistance.

Mr. Trump has stopped saying the agency needs to be dissolved. Mr. Musk said during an event sent on X, his social media platform, that he had discussed USAD in detail with the president who agreed that we should shut it down. “

“I want to be ready,” Musk added. “I actually checked with him a few times. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yes.’ So we shut it down. “

In comments on journalists on Sunday, Mr. Trump that he believes the agency is driven by “radical madman.”

“We get them out, and then we make a decision,” he said.

The Trump Administration’s steps to cutting international aid programs operating with grant money from US agencies have thrown humanitarian groups around the world in crisis. USAID spent about $ 38.1 billion on healthcare, disaster relief, anti-poorness efforts and other programs in the 2023 financial year. It was less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

In Washington, there has been talk between current and former USID employees and legislators that the agency funded by Congress could be subject to the state department in a significantly reduced form. The Ministry of State and USAID did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

The Trump Administration has already suspended dozens of senior USAID officials and issued stop work orders leading to the firings from hundreds of contractors. On Saturday, the agency’s two top security officials were put on administrative leave after they refused to allow representatives of Mr. Musk’s Task Force access to internal systems, according to officials with knowledge of the case.

Mr. Musk’s Taskforce, the so -called government efficiency department is not a department. But President Trump has given him a wide latitude to find ways to cut public spending.

Mr. Musk is not a neutral player on the subject of USAID He is a harsh critic who has sent a number of messages in recent days that promoted conspiracy theories about it. He felt it “a criminal organization” in a post on Sunday without giving evidence and added, “Time for dying.”