Marco Rubio says he is acting director of USAID as Elon Musk is working to shut it down: Trump Live updates

Many of the cuts were rolled out secretly and without warning when representatives of Elon Musk, who were deputy by President Trump to lead a task force to reduce public spending, took over his operations despite objections from relief workers and Democrats in Congress.

In a speech with journalists in El Salvador, Mr. Rubio that many of USAID’s programs were worth and would continue during the umbrella from the state department and promised to delegate the daily operations to a person he did not name.

He added that the organizational change was asked what he described as efforts from USAID officials to hide details about their work and lack of cooperation with reasonable questions from the Trump administration.

Mr. Rubio accused USAID employees of “deciding that they are somehow a global charity separated from national interest or taxpayers’ dollars.” He added, “The kind of level of insubordination makes it impossible to complete some kind of mature and serious review.”

Mr. Rubio’s criticism of USAID, the government’s most important agency for distributing foreign humanitarian assistance and development assistance, was still significantly softer than Mr. Musk that has accused the agency of being a ”Criminal organization. “Early Monday morning he said he and Mr. Trump had decided it was time to dissolve it.

“We shut it down,” Mr. Musk during a live chat on x, his social media platform, later Adding in a post that “We spent the weekend feeding USAD in the wood tiling.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump that USAID was “driven by radical madman” and promised to remove them.

USAD employees were told overnight not to report on working on Monday because its Washington, DC, headquarters would be closed, which burned fears that the already heaped agency would soon be closed too well.

The unusual personnel -covering Directive was sent out around 1 p.m. 12:45 Eastern time, shortly after Mr. Musk’s message. But not all employees were able to read the note as many had already been locked out of their accounts. Some reported that they were informed via text message not to come to the office.

Hundreds of contractors who make up the majority of staff in field offices lost access to their official E emails and systems over the weekend, according to five people with knowledge of the changes. On Monday morning, many direct officials also found hiring that they were unable to log into their accounts, the people said.

The Draconian movements caught many USAID -employees outside the guard, some said in interviews. Although Mr. Trump had made known his disdain for foreign aid, they did not expect their agency to be fully settled.

On Monday, over 100 USAD staffers in front of the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, where the agency’s headquarters are to protest against the shutdown. Many kept us flags and homemade signs that said things like “Democracy died in self -satisfaction.” Together with a group of democratic lawmakers, they were shining against the closures and accused Mr. Musk especially when they egged on the protesters.

“We do not have a fourth branch of the government called Elon Musk,” representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, told those who were gathered. He spoke directly to Mr. Musk and added: “You don’t control the US people’s money. The American Congress does. “

The Democrats have condemned the USID closure as an illegal maneuver because Congress created and continues to finance the agency as a clear entity. The federal government is currently funded through March 14.

“Any effort to merge or fold USID into the Ministry of State must be, and must, by law, be preview, discussed and approved by Congress,” the Democrats wrote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a letter Sunday to Mr. Rubio.

The senators pointed out that they had not received any notice that Mr. Musk’s Taskforce would enter USAID or that they were trying to close the operations.

Early Monday Morning, employees of the Agency’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, who still had active accounts, got to know that they would be able to access their offices in an annex building, according to an E email from Dianna Darsney de Salcedo, the division’s Deputy President Administrator, a copy of which was seen by the New York Times. But when they arrived, the front turns did not work according to three people who were either at or directly in contact with those trying to enter the office.

Two men stood at the entrance, said two of the people, in what seemed to be an effort to block people from entering. The men eventually stepped aside and some employees were able to go in.

Once in the office, the few dozen employees encroached on site to gather their belongings and those from colleagues who had not been able to enter the building, fill trash bags and boxes full of personal items, including photos of their children and plaques From previous prices according to three people inside the building or directly in contact with those who were. Most of them inside had security preparations and planned to stay until they were forced out, the people said.

Abroad, USAID contractors in force were left stranded when contractors in foreign missions had lost access to official systems – including those in conflict zones – wondering if they would still enjoy the protection of the US government or whether their travels Back to United States would be approved or reimbursed. Without official guidance, employees from Ukraine to Somalia were left to find out how to fund their own way out.

Employees were particularly concerned about the consequences of rollbacks for work in USAids Gaza mission based in Jerusalem, the most important agency responsible for ensuring that American humanitarian assistance continues to flow to Palestinians in Gaza. The United States is a guarantor of the exciting ceasefire that has been beaten between Israel and Hamas last month, as well as the largest single provider of assistance whose continuation is critical to ensure that the ceasefire does not fall apart.

For others, the widespread loss of access the panic, which had already taken hold of the agency’s employees, who have aligned with a shutdown since representatives of Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an ad hoc task force contained in the white house of the house, entered the agency’s headquarters last week.

Two top security officials were put on administrative leave to try to deny these representatives access to internal systems, including a safe space where classified materials were housed. By Monday, Musk’s deputies had seized control not only of the IT system, but also the physical security and identification operations, according to a contractor who is familiar with the changes.

According to the contractor, two people, Luke Farritor and Gavin, gained access to USAID systems at a high level. Mr. Kliger who has a role with the White Huss Office of Personal and Management, but is said to be an engineer in Mr. Musk’s Taskforce, was also the person behind the E -mail, who instructs employees not to show up at the agency’s headquarters on Monday, according to a USAID employee who is tasked with being the headquarters of the agency. Mr. Kiger did not respond to requests for comment.

Reporting was contributed Theodore SchleiferAt Aishvarya KaviAt Mark MazzettiAt Erica L. GreenAt Stephanie Nolen and Patrick Kingsley.