Fury and dismay as Musk and Trump move to shut down USAID, the world’s largest provider of food aid

Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency is leading Trump’s drive to shrink the federal government, has announced work is underway to shut down the US foreign aid agency USAID. Its website is currently down.

This news follows the removal of two top security officials at the United States Agency for International Development, John Voorhees and his deputy, after they refused access to restricted, highly classified spaces to Elon Musk’s DOGE representatives over the weekend.

USAID is the world’s largest provider of food assistance. Its entire website is offline at the time of writing.

In a live streamed social media talk on X Spaces on Monday (3 February), Elon Musk stated that the agency is “beyond repair, adding that President Trump agrees it should be shut down.

The agency has been under siege since Trump came to power, with the Washington Post reporting that it has been: “whipsawed by aid freezes, personnel purges and confusion.” USAID employs 10,000 people.

On Saturday (1 February), a group of about eight DOGE officials entered the USAID building and demanded access to every door and floor, despite only a few of them having security clearance, according to a Senate Democratic staff member who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity.

It is believed they were trying to access a sensitive compartmented information facility, where officials and government contractors take extraordinary precautions to review highly classified information. Voorhees was put on leave after he and his deputy attempted to prevent the DOGE officials from gaining access.

On Sunday night, Trump attacked the aid agency’s leadership saying they were a “bunch of radical lunatics.” Over the weekend, Musk took to X to describe the agency as “evil” and a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”

Musk also tweeted a baseless claim that USAID “funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people.”

With a budget of over $50 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, and carries out vital disaster relief. Its mission statement reads: “We partner to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.”

Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid, including vital programmes that aim to mitigate and manage the causes and consequences of violent conflict, instability and extremism, as part of his “America First” policy. Experts have warned that the sudden freeze in aid will lead to widespread humanitarian disaster and global instability.

Avril Benoît, Chief Executive Officer of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) USA has released a statement urging the US government to immediately resume funding of critical humanitarian and health aid, adding: ” In the last week, MSF’s medical teams have witnessed confusion as clinics and other critical services previously supported by USAID were shut down without warning.”

Many have also taken to social media to speak out against the USAID shut down, and to slam Musk’s comments about the agency. On Monday, Obama staffer Tommy Vietor tweeted: “USAID is filled with idealistic people who work long hours, often in dangerous places, to save lives. Debate policy or spending levels all you want, but calling them evil or claiming that they hate America is truly disgraceful.”

In response to Musk’s claims about USAID’s “bioweapon research”, journalist Mehdi Hasan said: “He just tweets out complete disinformation, complete lies (even if it was leaked from a lab, which we have no evidence for, COVID isn’t a bioweapon and USAID didn’t fund its creation) and millions instantly believe his lies and disinformation.

“No fact-checking or media org can cope with this – or with his reach. Not sure how democracy survives in this online environment and with people like Musk flooding the zone in an unprecedented and almost unstoppable way.”