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President Trump and Business Businessman Elon Musk have moved to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which spent about $ 30 billion last year on Humanitarian Help, Development and Security A More than 100 countries.
Musk said that Trump agreed with him that Usaid should be closed after the President said that his administration would get the “lunatics” outside the agency before a decision was made on his future.
Trump caused the Secretary of State Marco Rubio to be the head of the USAID Monday and the documents that support the USAID were put on the State Department’s website over the weekend, a signal of the intention of the intention of The Trump Administration of merging Usaid and the State Department.
Democrats are affecting Trump’s shares and promising legal challenges. Republicans who support foreign aid are largely silent, while Trump’s closest allies to Congress encourage the President’s move.
“It would be absolutely because, if this is the path we go down, removing Usaid as a separate department,” said representative Brian Mast (R-FLA.), President of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Also asked “purge” State Department staff while examining foreign assistance.
Here are five to take the effort to close the USAID:
Raises constitutional issues
Trump said on Monday that he did not think he would take a congress ceremony to review USAID, telling journalists that there was “enormous fraud” at the agency. But Democrats and some legal experts disagree.
Usaid was created by an executive order of President Kennedy in 1961, and a congress ceremony made him his own agency in 1998.
Revert that he would take an act of Congress and not a president who unilaterally surpassed the Statute, according to the New York University Law School Blog “Just Security”. Additionally, the tax law of state and foreign operations of 2024 added a provision to require the Congress to consult and notify any reorganization of USAID.
Trump’s administration is studying legal via that the President could use to sign an executive order that ends the independence of USAID, Reuters reported Friday. The White House did not respond to a comments request on a potential order.
Senator Chris van Hollen (D-MD.) He said he works with lawyers to obtain an order against some of Trump’s orders, related to the protections for federal employees, the recipients of the USAID grant and the operations of the l ‘Agency in general.
Argued Senator Andy Kim (DN.J.), who worked at USAID Africa Office In a post on the social platform X that “Trump/Musk cannot unilaterally close usaid or transfer under state. The USAID is encoded by the Law of Reform and Restructuring of Foreign Affairs of 1998, 22 USC 6501 and SEQ”, referring to the Congress Law of Congress 1998.
Underline Trump, Musk’s upset by foreign aid
Trump had tried to reduce foreign assistance since his first administration, aligning with his “America First” insulating agenda Attempt to merge —S The agency with the State Department, but the bipartisan promoted these plans.
As one of the first movements of his second administration, he signed an executive order To freeze foreign assistance for three months and directed officials to review all programs to ensure that they are aligned with their vision of U.S. foreign policy.
Democrats have warned that US support worldwide could open the door to Chinese influence.
“Trump’s administrator complains about China’s growing influence on Africa, but then closes one of our best tools to combat this,” Said Kim Ax. “Your vindictive way to try to close Usaid sends signs worldwide that we are a nation at war with itself. It tells authoritarian adversaries that America is distracted and divided. It is said to other nations that we do not matter, since China and the others try to go next to it. “
Give information about DOGE’s direction
The Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) led by Musk (DOGE) was commissioned to find ways to reduce spending and cut federal government staff, and has alerted the federal government strips.
Musk has directed against Usaid in X, saying “we spent the weekend feeding usaid in the wooden chip”. The USAID website has been removed out of line, hundreds of contractors have said goodbye, and employees are blocked from their accounts one by one without prior notice.
It was assumed that two highest safety officials in USAID went on leave on Saturday night after denying DOGE employees access to internal systems. And an employee usaid said to the hill His colleagues were blocked to enter a second USAID office in the south -DC for men who identified themselves as part of the DOGE, but then turned away.
Usaid had a budget of $ 40 billion by 2023, which is less than about $ 70.9 billion than Lockheed Martin, the largest government contractor, received that year, according to Federal contracting data.
Musk’s decision to guide the sent humanitarian aid organization shock and confusion waves Through the help community, with other agencies that are based on the following objective.
The power of Doge under Trump increases
The weekend attack on USAID occurred when Rubio was on diplomatic trips to Panama and Central America, emphasizing the power Trump has put to DOGE.
Rubio, while in a record that supported us with Foreign United States in the past, caused usaid made “completely unanswered” Talking to journalists To El Salvador.
“I am very worried about these reports that did not want to cooperate with people who ask simple questions,” said Rubio. “This level of insubordination makes it impossible to perform a kind of mature and serious review that I think should have foreign help.”
DOGE officials They have also demanded access To the payment systems of the Treasure Department that officials use to pay the funds.
White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called Musk Monday a special government employee and said he had “respected all applicable federal laws”.
Trump said Musk can do nothing Without his approval, adding that the billionaire can only let people go “if we agree with him.”
Democrats are trying to gather in defense of USAID
Democratic legislators focused their rage on Musk and Doge as they met in support of USAID and warned of the threats increased in America if closed.
“Never in my wildest dreams could have -imagined that in the United States of America in 2025 we would be attending a non -selected billionaire, Elon Musk and oligarchs and so many non -selected people who took full control of our federal government “, representative. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) He said.
But without the Republicans joining the push, Democrats may have to trust the courts to check Trump’s authority.
“Because we do not have many republican colleagues who want to help us, we do everything we can with our colleagues through the courts to ensure the rule of law,” Van Hollen said, talking outside the Usaid headquarters a press conference on Monday. “Elon Musk … You can try to interpret dictator here in Washington, DC, but does not close the Agency for International Development.”
Senator Brian Sccatz (D-Hawaii) said on Monday that he would put a blanket on all Trump candidates in the State Department as long as the attacks on USAID persist.
Representative Sarah ELFRETH (D-MD) urged Americans to pressure Republicans.
“We need your help, if you are represented by a Republican member of the House, a Republican Senate Member, you must call their offices, you must present -you are in your offices you need to hear your voice,” she “, She,” she. he said.
