U.S. Department of State Other versions / Wikimedia Commons
CV NEWS FEED // President Donald Trump’s administration reduced the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from an estimated 14,000 to 294 employees, sources confirmed Thursday.
The USAID website states that by Friday at midnight, “all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs.”
The notice states that employees living outside the U.S. will have their return to the U.S. arranged and covered within 30 days of termination. The agency will also “consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons.”
The USAID, the government agency responsible for distributing foreign aid, has recently been under scrutiny, with the Trump administration raising major security concerns.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio became acting director of the USAID Feb. 3 after the agency, as CatholicVote reported, “attempted to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing its financial records.”
According to Fox News, Rubio said Monday, “I’m very troubled by these reports that they [USAID] have been unwilling to cooperate with people who are asking simple questions about what does this program do, who gets the money, who are our contractors, who’s funded.”
“And that sort of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct the sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid at large should have,” he added.
The Trump administration has also scrutinized USAID’s spending, demanding greater financial accountability.
The White House stated Monday that USAID “has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.”
The statement went on to list several abuses, including millions of dollars given to foreign countries to advance controversial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, thousands to “transgender” initiatives, and $2 million for “sex changes.”
Rubio said Monday that the most essential USAID programs will continue, but all functions must be aligned with American foreign policy.
“These are taxpayer dollars,” he said, “and we owe the American people the assurances that every dollar we are spending abroad is being spent on something that furthers our national interest.”
