The Trump administration has deployed only a handful of USAID staff around the world on paid administrative leave, with about 2,000 positions in the US, according to a notification sent to agency workers on Sunday and posted online. He said he was excluded.
“As of 11:59pm EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAIDs except for designated personnel responsible for mission-critical features, core leadership and/or specially designated programs. Direct employment officers will be placed on administrative leave. Globally,” the notice said.
“Simultaneously,” the notification added, and the agency is “starting to implement expansions” affecting approximately 2,000 USAID officials in the United States.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Billionaire Elon Musk is leading efforts to disrupt the main delivery mechanism of American foreign aid, our key tool “soft power.” , boasts that he “supplies USAID to wood chippers.” He gained influence overseas.
On Friday, a federal judge paved the way for the Trump administration to leave thousands of USAID workers. This is a setback of the government employee union, which is calling for what they call an effort to dismantle it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was appointed by Donald Trump to play the administrator of USAID earlier this month. The unsigned notification came from the “admin office.”
Two former USAID officials told Reuters that the majority of the approximately 4,600 agency staff, as well as career U.S. civil servants and foreign service staff will be placed on administrative leave.
“This administration and secretary Rubio are approaching reducing US expertise and unique crisis response capabilities,” said Marcia Wong, one of the former staff members. “If a disease outbreak occurs and the population is evacuated, will these USAID experts be on the ground, first deployed and provided aid steady?” in a post on Musk’s social media platform. Wong is even dull, calling the job “myopic, high-risk, frankly stupid.”
“Notifications without a signature like this are not self-implemented. They must follow an individual personnel action or at least an approved leave slip, executed properly by someone with that authority,” he added. The second former official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
The US president ordered a 90-day suspension of foreign aid shortly after taking office, from programs fighting hunger and fatal illnesses to providing shelter to millions of displaced people around the world. funds have been suspended.
Trump, his spokesperson, and Musk all tried to justify the cuts by pointing out wildly invented or fully invented spending on foreign aid projects.
According to a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters, including restricted humanitarian relief, the administration has approved a total of $5.3 billion freezing exceptions, primarily for security and anti-drug programs.
According to the list, the USAID program received a waiver of less than $100 million. This is equivalent to approximately $400 billion for the USAID program, which is managed annually before the freeze.
Trump’s ally Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban joined the USAID-staining campaign and posted a video on Musk’s social media platform. human rights.
“USAID was the heart of a robust financial and power machine. A monster created to crush, collapse and erode the freedom and independence of the nation, so that a liberal globalist empire can flourish,” Orban wrote. Ta. Trump added, “He made a bet through the heart of the empire.”
