WASHINGTON DC – On Monday afternoon, amid mounting fury over Elon Musk’s shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and his successful weekend efforts to seize control of the US Treasury’s entire payments system, President Donald Trump intervened.
He named Musk a “special government employee”, a designation that allows the world’s richest man to skirt many of the government’s most rigorous strictures on conflict-of-interest and ethics policies. Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump called Musk a “very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs”, and claimed that his only power was “letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him”.
But the evidence is already overwhelming that Musk is exceeding his remit. In a mere five hours on Friday night, USAID fell victim to the unchallenged power of Musk’s associates in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (“Doge”, which is not, in fact, a US government department). At a stroke, the agency’s closure became a litmus test of Trump’s ongoing efforts to assert unlimited presidential authority, and of his continuing determination to deploy Musk as his willing executioner and personal hit-man.
Created by President John F Kennedy in 1961, USAID has served as the lead humanitarian and developmental arm of the United States government, disbursing more than $46 billion (£37 bn) annually and overseeing fully 40 per cent of the total cash spent globally on international assistance.
At first, Musk’s team was refused entry to the USAID headquarters on Friday. Only a threat to call in the US Marshals secured the eventual co-operation of the agency’s security staff.
Lawmakers, employees and supporters of USAID outside its headquarters on Monday (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)By the time Doge departed, two USAID officials who had sought to prevent classified information from falling into Musk’s hands were placed on immediate leave. The Doge team secured full access to the agency’s computer systems, including classified material. They shut down the USAID website and the agency’s social media accounts. Billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance to more than 100 countries were frozen in aspic.
On his social media platform, Musk falsely described the agency as “a criminal organisation”. It was, he thundered, “time for it to die”. He later boasted of spending the weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper”, while Trump, at the White House, insisted the agency’s staff were “lunatics”, and that its closure “should have been done a long time ago”.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was named on Monday as the acting administrator of USAID, claims that the agency will return in some form after its programmes and policies are reviewed to ensure they align with America’s “national security priorities”. But with more than 50 of the agency’s senior officials placed on administrative leave, and the entire staff told to stay home on Monday, global programmes funded by the American taxpayer face a deeply uncertain future and an evaporating pool of cash.
US Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin declared that Musk had no power to destroy USAID (Photo: Kent Nishimura/ Reuters)Last week, National Public Radio revealed that entire floors of the USAID headquarters had been emptied and stripped of photographs illustrating the agency’s work. Remaining employees were reportedly being challenged about their loyalty to Trump. One laid-off staffer described events as “the systematic dismantling of a long-standing agency in order to cause chaos”.
That chaos will hit hard overseas. Atul Gawande, a highly respected surgeon and writer who serves as USAID’s assistant administrator for global health described the agency’s closure as “unlawful destruction”. He noted that in the realm of public health alone, USAID is critical to the fight against bird flu, polio, the deadly Marburg virus, HIV and river blindness. “Make no mistake”, he wrote on social media, “these essential, life-saving activities are being halted right now. Clinics are shuttering. Workers sent home. Partners…unable to make payroll. All despite clear requirements from Congress to do this work.”
As Trump imposed tariffs, Musk scored his biggest power-grab yet
Read MoreDemocrats in Congress belatedly stirred on Monday, rallying furious USAID employees outside the building’s locked headquarters. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland addressed his message to Musk directly. “You didn’t create USAID,” he thundered. “The United States Congress did for the American people.” Musk, he argued, has no power to destroy the agency.
Moments later, the Democrats were blocked by security staff from entering USAID’s locked and shuttered headquarters, suggesting that for now at least, Musk’s power remains undiminished.
Washington is reeling. Any guardrails that may have existed to constrain Musk’s behaviour have melted away. Doge is already moving on to its next target, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a congressionally funded non-profit that has promoted and strengthened democratic institutions worldwide since 1983.
On his social media site X, Musk branded NED “a SCAM” and, without evidence, accused it of being “RIFE with CORRUPTION”. He urged his followers to provide him with lists of “all the evil things that NED has done”.
At the Endowment’s headquarters, just one block away from USAID, staff were braced for Musk’s knock on the door.
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