WASHINGTON (AP) – Thousands of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window until today to clear out their workspaces.
USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave on Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.
USAID has been one of the biggest targets so far of a broad campaign by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a project of Elon Musk, to slash the size of the federal government. The actions at USAID leave only a fraction of its employees on the job.
Trump and Musk have moved swiftly to shutter the foreign aid agency, calling its programmes out of line with the president’s agenda and asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful. In addition to its scope, their effort is extraordinary because it has not involved Congress, which authorized the agency and has provided its funding.
A report from the Congressional Research Service earlier this month said congressional authorisation is required “to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID,” but the Republican majorities in the House and Senate have made no pushback against the administration’s actions. There’s virtually nothing left to fund, anyway: The administration now says it is eliminating more than 90 per cent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and USD60 billion in United States (US) assistance around the world. It’s unclear how many of the more than 5,600 USAID employees who have been fired or placed on leave work at the agency’s headquarters building in Washington.
