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USAID Goes ‘Offline’ in Latest Target of Trump Admin’s War on Govt Overspending

The website for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) went ‘offline’ Saturday as President Donald Trump vowed action to overhaul the agency, fulfilling his campaign promise to cut foreign aid and reduce government overspending. USAID workers got emails stating that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters facility “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.” 

Elon Musk, who heads the new Department of Government Efficiency, has threatened to close USAID, after claiming the federal agency is “criminal” and “beyond repair”, while stating during an X space conversation that Trump agreed the USAID should be shut down.

USAID has faced criticism and speculation over its spending in the past after an investigation by TBIJ and Devex into its $9.5bn supply chain project. The investigation revealed a number of issues with the agency’s project to strengthen global health supply chains, which has been led since 2016 by the US contractor Chemonics International. These included internal concerns about its design and implementation, changes to reporting requirements that made its performance hard to judge and doubts over whether it had succeeded in building lasting supply chains.

Just days after taking office, Trump issued an executive order to halt foreign aid for 90 days, aligning with his America First agenda, claiming to ensure that taxpayer dollars are no longer funneled into wasteful overseas programs but are instead directed toward domestic priorities. 

Since its creation in 1961, USAID has operated as an independent agency, often implementing policies that allegedly did not always serve American interests. Annually, the U.S. spends roughly $40 billion on foreign aid from a $50 billion budget – a sum that accounts for every four out of 10 dollars in global humanitarian aid, according to the Department of State, USAID assists approximately 130 countries and has a workforce of over 10,000 people worldwide, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

The Trump administration has long argued that foreign aid should not be a tool for subsidizing ineffective international programs but should instead serve as a means of strengthening U.S. influence when necessary. Despite backlash from Democratic lawmakers and career bureaucrats, Trump’s actions claim to correct decades of unchecked government expansion. Critics argue that eliminating USAID would allow rivals like China and Russia to expand their influence.

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