Musk says US aid agency will be closed

Trump said USAID is run by ‘a bunch of radical lunatics’ but that any decision on its future is not final.

WASHINGTON – The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, said Monday that the U.S. Agency for International Development will be closed on President Donald Trump’s orders, after the prominent tycoon tasked with cutting government spending called the aid agency “evil.”

Employees of USAID, which disburses some $33 billion in international aid each year for development programs in poor countries, were told to work remotely on Monday after the agency’s website was taken offline Saturday, following an order from Trump last month to freeze all global aid until a review was completed.

Trump told reporters on Sunday evening that USAID was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics” who needed to be removed from the agency before any final decision about its future could be made.

“We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” Trump said after arriving back in Washington from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

A United States Agency for International Development, USAID, contract worker sits in front of the USAID office in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025.
world-usaid-shutdown-development-aid-evil-02 A United States Agency for International Development, USAID, contract worker sits in front of the USAID office in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

But Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with reducing the U.S. annual budget that ran to about $6.75 trillion last year, said in a live video on his X social media platform on Monday morning that the president emphatically told him to shut down the agency.

Development assistance from USAID would account for less than half a percent of the total U.S. budget.

“With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in the conversation with Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who is now running for governor of Ohio.

Musk said he had doublechecked “a few times” that Trump was sure, and that the president had reaffirmed his decision each time.

“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms,” Musk said. “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down.”

A U.S. Marine secures USAID supplies bound for cyclone devastated Myanmar at Utapao Air Force base, Rayong, Thailand, May 14, 2008.
world-usaid-shutdown-development-aid-evil-03 A U.S. Marine secures USAID supplies bound for cyclone devastated Myanmar at Utapao Air Force base, Rayong, Thailand, May 14, 2008. (Wally Santana/AP)

In other posts on X, the business tycoon also called the agency “evil,” “a criminal organization” that was sending U.S. taxpayer money abroad and “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”

Before its website was taken offline, USAID called itself the “principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.”

‘A great job’

Musk, who has a personal fortune of about $410 billion according to Forbes, was placed at the head of the new “Department of Government Efficiency” by Trump after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

At the airport on Sunday night, Trump also said he believed Musk was doing a “great job” even if he doesn’t always agree with his choices.

“He’s a big cost-cutter,” Trump said. “He’s a smart guy and he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal government.”


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Prior to Musk’s announcement that USAID would be closed, the Trump administration had said the agency would be folded into the U.S. State Department. That led to severe criticism from Democrats, who noted it was an independent agency empowered to act by Congress.

In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, Senate Democrats said “any attempt to reorganize or redesign USAID requires advance consultation with, and notification to, Congress,” under whose authority the agency operates under a 1961 law.

Protestors outside of the headquarters for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025.
world-usaid-shutdown-development-aid-evil-01 Protestors outside of the headquarters for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025. (Manel Ngan/AFP)

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York who serves as the Senate minority leader, called any decision to close USAID “illegal” given that the agency was authorized and funded by Congress.

But the appeals appeared to fall on deaf ears, with Rubio on Monday reportedly being named the acting administrator of USAID amid a wave of senior agency staff being removed from their positions.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The decision to shut down USAID was also slammed by international aid groups, who said the agency was a force for good in the world.

Doctors Without Borders released a statement saying USAID’s closure “will cause an unmitigated humanitarian disaster affecting millions of the world’s most vulnerable people,” including children, refugees and people suffering from diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

“We urge the U.S. government to immediately resume funding of critical humanitarian and health aid, either through rescinding relevant orders freezing funding or expanding the current narrow humanitarian waiver to cover all necessary health and humanitarian programs,” Avril Benoît, the group’s chief executive in the United States said.

USAID had been at the center of the Biden administration’s efforts to counter China’s influence-building and spending campaign around the world, echoing the agency’s use during the Cold War to counter the Soviet Union’s spending programs in the developing world.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.