The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which is led by Tech billionaire Elon MuskFocuses on the American Agency for International Development (USAID) and, according to Senior Congress Sources, moved to grab control of the independent agency at the weekend.
The senior congress sources told Fox News that more than 50 senior USAID employees were placed with administrative leave and were subject to a GAG order, which means that they were not allowed to communicate with someone outside the desk without approval.
Signs were also removed from the head office of USAID in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC, and the Doge team took over the computer systems, said the sources. USAID is responsible for distributing civilian foreign aid and development aid to countries around the world.
Last year the agency managed around $ 40 billion in credits, According to the Congressional Research Service.
The American agency of international development flag flies in front of the Bureau in Washington.
President Donald Trump Complimented the decision -making of Musk on Sunday during a rapid interaction with reporters on the asphalt on a joint Andrews. When asked if he felt that Musk “was” his promises, “the president responded with a lot of praise.
“I think Elon is doing well,” said Trump. “He is a big cost cutter. Sometimes we will not agree and we will not go where he wants to go, but I think he is doing great. He is a smart guy, very smart, and he is very much of it Lowering the budget of our federal government. “
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration placed two top security heads at USAID on leave after they refused to transfer classified material in limited areas to Doge.
After he initially refused access to the classified information from USAID, Doge got that access on Saturday, allowing them to see things as intelligence reports, a current and a former American officer told the AP.
The doge team members missed high enough freedom of security to gain access to the information, so the two USAID security officers – John Voorhees and Deputy Brian McGill – believed they were legal obliged to refuse access.
On Sunday, Musk focused on USAID on his social media platform X and wrote: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time to die.”
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He also wrote several other messages about the desk and said things like: “USAID was a Viper’s nest of Radical-Links Marxists who hate America” ​​and “USAID is bad.”
The latter was a response to a function that suggested that USAID helped in financing coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, which referred to an interaction posted about Forbes between Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., And now former USAID manager Samantha Power in April 2023.
Trump repeated the posts of Musk by saying that USAID was run by “a bunch of radical madmen” and his administration is “take them out”.
ABC News reported that those who were familiar with USAID wondered whether the movements at USAID were made in an attempt to relocate the office under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where a better account could be.
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Elon Musk Jumps joins the former President Donald Trump during a campagnerally in Butler, PA. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., turned to social media on Sunday to sound on the “dismantling” of USAID.
“Trump and Musk are reckless and illegal to disassemble USAID, an essential national security agency that saves lives, promotes American interests and promotes peace,” wrote Booker. “Their malicious actions are the health of people, especially children, with a serious risk, and will certainly lead to future public health and migration crises in the US – let alone suffer all over the world.”
Last week at least 56 USAID officials with administrative leave were placed with full wages and benefits, and several hundred contractors were established in Washington and were fired elsewhere.
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The actions came after State Secretary Marco Rubio, acting at the Executive Order of Trump, paused everything American foreign help Financed by or through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and USAID.
The 90-day break has thousands funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide and forced aid organizations to dismiss hundreds of employees because they cannot make a payroll worldwide and forced.
Chris Pandolfo from Fox News Digital and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
