Trump and Musk Team Up to Close Major US Aid Agency

Elon Musk wants to shut down America’s largest aid facility, USAID, by deactivating the nation’s largest foreign assistance organization. In a post to his social media platform formerly Twitter, Musk said the agency ‘is beyond repair’ and added that he has backing from sitting President Donald Trump to close it.

It marks Trump’s ‘America First’ approach of cutting down U.S. spending on international programs. USAID accounts for more than 10,000 employees and spent $72 billion on aid last year. All this is done, the agency help fund everything from women’s healthcare in war zones to energy security projects all over the world.

The weekend turned tense after two top USAID security officials were fired attempting to stop Musk’s team from being allowed into parts of the agency building. The representatives were from a newly created body at Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE). USAID’s website began to fall apart Saturday, shutting down shortly thereafter and leading many users to be unable to access the vital information found there.

If the planned shutdown goes ahead, it would burden people who rely on U.S. aid programs including field hospitals that care for refugees or HIV treatments. In reality, USAID has supplied 42 percent of all the recorded humanitarian aid in the world, by the United Nations, in 2024.

Trump chose Musk, Tesla and SpaceX head, to maybe squeeze a bit more, less clickbait, less political, more government work out of Washington. The fact that USAID is about to be closed to put an end to foreign aid spends now, it’s no wonder that the administration is serious about cutting foreign aid spending.

Concerns have been triggered among aid workers and international partners who wonder what will happen to the millions of people whose lives are supported in some way by USAID worldwide.

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