Tech billionaire, Elon Musk has said he and President Donald Trump are in the process of shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown on his social media site X
“We’re shutting it down,” he said. At another point, he said “We’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”
He further said the idea had “the full support of the president” and that he had spoken with Trump on the matter several times.
“With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” he said. “I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” he said. He said that Trump responded, “Yes.”
Trump on Sunday said that Musk “is doing a good job,” and criticized USAID as “run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” though Trump did not go so far as to say he planned to shut down the agency, with or without congressional agreement.
Trump administration officials have discussed placing USAID under the authority of the State Department, according to more than a dozen current and former officials and sources familiar with the discussions, NBC News has reported, a move that Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have argued would violate a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency.
Trump has said that he is freezing virtually all U.S. foreign assistance pending a 90-day review.
Congress annually appropriates money for USAID to spend, primarily for foreign aid and internationally focused charities.
Its budget for the 2023 fiscal year was about $40 billion, according to a report last month from the Congressional Research Service.
President John F. Kennedy created USAID by executive order in 1961 after Congress passed a reorganization of foreign assistance.
