Rubio takes control of USAID, pledges to end ‘insubordination’
4 Min Read
The US Agency for International Development is facing huge cuts as it is set to merge with the US State Department as part of Elon Musk's cost-cutting strategies.
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Then-Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, claps as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk prepares to depart after speaking at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, on Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa (AP)
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he had taken control of the US aid agency, vowing to end what he described as its defiance of President Donald Trump's agenda.
Rubio acknowledged that he and the State Department had taken over the autonomous US Agency for International Development (USAID) after Elon Musk, Trump's billionaire buddy and advisor, threatened to destroy the agency when its website went down over the weekend.
"I'm the acting director of USAID," Rubio told reporters on a visit to El Salvador, but he added he was delegating day-to-day duties to a staffer.
Despite claiming that many of USAID's operations will continue, Rubio, a senator who favored international aid, charged that the organization was behaving like an "independent non-governmental entity."
"In many cases, USAID is involved in programs that run counter to what we're trying to do with our national strategy," he said, adding that "It's been 20 or 30 years that people have tried to reform it."
Rubio accused USAID staff members—many of whom have been placed on leave—of not responding to inquiries about their budget and priorities from the newly elected Trump administration.
"That level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct a sort of serious review," he stated. "It's going to stop and it's going to end."
Earlier, ABC News had reported that President Donald Trump has appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to serve as acting administrator of USAID as part of the agency's transition.
CNN reported on Monday that USAID employees in Washington received an email from management stating that the headquarters would be closed for the day and staff should not report to work.
USAID’s official website went offline on Saturday and remains inaccessible amid reports that Trump plans to dissolve the agency as an independent entity and integrate it into the State Department.
The move follows an executive order signed last month, in which Trump suspended all development aid for 90 days to review whether such programs align with US foreign policy objectives.
Elon Musk, head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), stated on Monday that Trump had agreed to dismantle USAID.
On February 2, Musk posted on X, calling USAID a “criminal organization” that “needs to die”, and separately described it as a "nest of radical left-wing Marxists who hate America."
Musk, who is leading US President Donald Trump's initiative to reduce the size of the federal government, provided an update on the effort Monday, stating that they are working to dismantle the US foreign aid agency, USAID.
During the discussion, which featured former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, Musk reiterated that shutting down USAID is a primary focus of the initiative.
Musk said, "It's beyond repair," adding that President Trump agrees it should be shut down.
On Sunday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration removed two top security officials at USAID during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from billionaire Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DODGE) from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.
USAID is the largest single donor globally, with the US distributing $72 billion in aid during fiscal year 2023.
In 2024, USAID accounted for 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations.
USAID's website was offline over the weekend, and some users couldn’t access it. The agency employs over 10,000 staff members.
