Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s unelected co-president, announced on Monday that the United States Agency for International Development will be shut down, jeopardizing billions in foreign aid.
USAID is funded via Congress, which almost certainly makes it illegal for Musk—an unelected billionaire who runs a federal advisory commission that appears to be running afoul of federal law—to unilaterally shut it down.
However, Musk said on X Space—an audio platform on his X social media site—that he convinced Trump to shut the agency down, and that Trump agreed.
“I went over it with the president in detail and he agreed that we should shut [it down]. I checked with him multiple times,” Musk said early on Monday morning.
Trump has yet to publicly say the agency is shut down, but he told reporters on Sunday that USAID is run by “radical lunatics.”
“We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he said.
In the meantime, the USAID website is offline as of Monday morning. Dozens of people at the agency have been put on leave after they reportedly refused to follow a seemingly illegal funding freeze of all foreign assistance, which Trump had put in place.
And on Sunday night, one of Musk’s barely-out-of-college tech bros sent an email to the entire USAID agency, saying the office was closed and that no one should report to work unless told otherwise.
“At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C.[,] will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025,” reads an email sent from Gavin Kliger, one of the small group of men reportedly between the ages of 19 and 24 who work for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a federal advisory commission.
Even a former Trump administration official told CBS News that the order to shut the agency down is beyond the pale.
Elon Musk, left, and Donald Trump attend a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024.
“[W]hy would anyone comply with this? The press office has no authority to order this and it’s not signed by any agency leader,” the unnamed former Trump official told CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs.
Neither Trump nor Musk appear to have the legal authority to shutter USAID. Former President John F. Kennedy created the agency by executive order in 1961, following the passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which reorganized the U.S.’s foreign aid. Any major change to the agency is assumed to require congressional approval.
What’s more, the agency has been funded by Congress, and unilaterally impounding the congressionally approved funding also would seemingly run afoul of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Already, two federal judges halted Trump’s attempt to freeze all congressionally appropriated funds.
“The Executive’s action unilaterally suspends the payment of federal funds to the States and others simply by choosing to do so, no matter the authorizing or appropriating statute, the regulatory regime, or the terms of the grant itself. The Executive cites no legal authority allowing it to do so; indeed, no federal law would authorize the Executive’s unilateral action here,” U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote in a decision blocking Trump’s attempted funding freeze.
It seems Trump’s attempt to shutter an entire federal agency would fall under the same premise.
Ultimately, closing USAID would be devastating for millions of people worldwide—as well as Americans living in the United States since USAID helps contain the spread of deadly viruses and diseases that could impact Americans if they are not kept at bay.
Atul Gawande, who was the assistant administrator of global health at USAID under former President Joe Biden, said ending USAID would be a disaster.
“This Administration is trashing US standing, alliances with scores of countries built over half a century, world-leading capacity and expertise, and American security,” Gawande wrote in a post on X. “Make no mistake—these essential, lifesaving activities are being halted right now. Consequences aren’t in some distant future. They are immediate.”
Gawande also laid out just some of the programs that would expire by ending the agency:
I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples:
1. Stops work battling a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and a wide outbreak of a mpox variant killing children in west Africa before it spreads further.
2. Stops monitoring of bird flu in 49 countries, a disease which already killed an American on home soil.
3. Stops critical work to eradicate polio.
4. Stops >$1B in corporate drug donations and coordination eradicating tropical diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis, and others on the verge of elimination in whole regions.
5. Stops medicines, supplies, systems building, staff support aiding >90 million women and children to get low cost vaccinations, prenatal care, safe childbirth, contraception, and other basic lifesaving health needs.
6. Stops direct services for 6.5 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers affected by HIV in 23 countries.
7. Stops donated drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive.
8. Would furlough all USAID contract staff — which includes half of its global health bureau—unless exempted.
Democrats are sounding the alarm about Trump’s actions.
“It’s hard to overhype how dangerous this moment is. This [is] a naked attempt to seize government by the right wing billionaire class so they can steal from the American people,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote in a post on X.
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