Employees at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in downtown Washington were shut out Monday – today, February 3 – hours after billionaire Elon Musk said President Donald Trump agreed that Washington’s primary humanitarian agency should be closed.
Hundreds of USAID programs covering billions of dollars worth of lifesaving aid across the globe came to a grinding halt after Trump on Jan. 20 ordered a freeze of most U.S. foreign aid, saying he wanted to ensure it is aligned with his “America First” policy.
Over the past week, mayhem has prevailed at USAID’s offices in DC where dozens of staff have been put on leave while people working for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attempted to gain access to USAID documents, triggering a row between his aides and career staff.
The billionaire is heading Trump’s drive to cut wasteful spending within the federal government but his increasingly harsh accusations of USAID for which he has not provided evidence  has raised questions on whether the effort to gut the agency and possibly bring it under the State Department was solely driven by cost-cutting purposes.
Musk said in a broadcast on Monday that USAID was “beyond repair,” and that Trump agreed that it should be shut down.Â
Trump told reporters on Sunday that USAID has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” adding: “We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision.”
“At the direction of the Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025,” an internal email to USAID staff seen by Reuters said.Â
There was no information in the email about whether the offices would remain shut in the coming days.Â
“Further guidance will be forthcoming,” it said.
The row between DOGE staff and USAID triggered outrage among Democrats.Â
A group of Democratic lawmakers said they will gather at 1 p.m. outside the USAID headquarters to protest the closure, calling it “the Trump administration’s and Elon Musk’s illegal shutdown.”
The United States is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the country disbursed $72 billion of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
Following the executive order, the State Department issued worldwide stop-work directives, effectively freezing all foreign aid with the exception of emergency food assistance in a move experts warned risked killing people.
