President Donald Trump will fire about 9,400 workers from USAID, deeming only 611 as essential employees and bringing about the near total elimination of the government agency.
His administration originally planned to keep fewer than 300 staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development but that number has now risen, according a notice sent to the agency late Thursday night.
Trump said he was closing down the entire agency.
On Friday morning, he wrote on his Truth Social: ‘USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE. THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!’
USAID was the first target of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is sweeping through the federal government, cutting spending and the workforce.
Musk has called the agency a ‘criminal organization’ and criticized its spending on foreign aid.
‘Your tax dollars should be spent on America or the government should just tax you less,’ he wrote on X on Tuesday.
The remaining USAID staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the New York Times reported.
When the original 300 number was floated, staff at the agency had pushed to keep more people on board, citing critical lifesaving humanitarian work.
Senior staff submitted a list of around 600 people to State Department leadership, calling their work essential and saying it could not be disrupted.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the list of employees who are staying.
But about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency are being canceled.
USAID’s Washington D.C. office has been closed and protesters have been surrounding the building.
Additionally, earlier this week, the administration gave USAID staffers posted overseas 30 days, starting Friday, to return to the U.S., with the government paying for their travel and moving costs.
Workers who choose to stay longer, unless they received a specific hardship waiver, may have to cover their own expenses.
USAID staff are fighting back.
Two unions representing USAID employees on Thursday filed a lawsuit over the cuts against Trump, Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the agency, the State Department and the Treasury Department.
‘What we’re seeing is an unlawful seizure of this agency by the Trump administration in a plain violation of basic constitutional principles,’ said Robin Thurston, the legal director for Democracy Forward, one of two advocacy organizations that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees.
The lawsuit argues only Congress can dissolve the agency and calls the Trump administration’s actions ‘unconstitutional and illegal.’
Trump is one of the agency’s top critics. He has said of it: ‘It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out.’
Rubio has defended the government’s actions.
During a joint press conference with the president of the Dominican Republic on Thursday, he said it was the only option.
‘I’d have preferred not to do it this way,’ he noted. ‘When we tried to do it from the top down by getting cooperation from the central office and USAID, what we found instead are people trying to use the system to sneak through payments and push through payments despite the stop order. We found people that were uncooperative in terms of giving us information and access.’
Rubio emphasized that the Trump administration will still be issuing foreign assistance.
‘The United States will be providing foreign aid,’ he said. ‘But it is going to be foreign aid that makes sense and is aligned with our national interest.’
Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to cut the agency’s funding could have consequences at home.
USAID oversees projects such as food aid, disaster relief and health programs in over 100 countries with a budget of around $40 billion.
Much of the aid the agency buys is from American businesses.
In 2020, the agency bought $2.1 billion in food aid from American farmers. Smaller companies with specialities like global health care could go out of business.