Tech billionaire and X owner, Elon Musk has revealed he and President Donald Trump are in the process of shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Musk, who heads Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown on X
He said: “We’re shutting it down,” he said. At another point. We’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”
He stated further that the idea had “the full support of the president” and that he had talked with Trump many times about it.
He added: “With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down. I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’”
He said Trump responded, “Yes.”
Trump recently said that Musk “is doing a good job,” and slammed USAID as “run by a bunch of radical lunatics.” However, Trump did not go as far as saying he planned to shut down the agency, with or without congressional agreement.
According to NBC, Trump administration officials have talked about placing USAID under the authority of the State Department, according to over a dozen current and former officials and sources privy to the discussions, a move that Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have said would violate a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency.
Trump has stated he is freezing virtually every U.S. foreign assistance pending a 90-day review.
Congress annually apportions money for USAID to spend, majorly for foreign aid and internationally focused charities.
Its budget for 2023 fiscal year was around $40 billion, according to a January report from the Congressional Research Service.
President John F. Kennedy established USAID by executive order in 1961 after Congress passed a reorganization of foreign assistance.
