WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States (US) Agency for International Development is on the cusp of being shuttered, according to Trump administration’s billionaire adviser and Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk – who has been wrestling for control of the agency in recent days.
Early yesterday, Musk held a live session on X Spaces, previously known as Twitter Spaces, and said that he spoke in detail about USAID with the president. “He agreed we should shut it down,” Musk said.
“It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.
We’re shutting it down.”
His comments come after the administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former US official told The Associated Press.
Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access on Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.
Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials – John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill – believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.
The current and former US officials had knowledge of the incident and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share the information.
