What is USAID? How many people work for the agency, what does it do and is it corrupt - as Trump and Elon Musk aim to shut it down
Elon Musk has threatened to shut down America’s $50-billion-a-year foreign aid agency, USAID.
The Tesla CEO has called it “criminal” and “beyond repair” adding that President Donald Trump had agreed with him to close the federal agency, which was founded by JFK and has the largest budget of its kind in the world. USAID said its Washington D.C. headquarters were closed on Monday, and told staff to work from home on Tuesday. Several hundred employees reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems.
Musk said during a live discussion on X Spaces: “He agreed we should shut it down. It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down.”
What is USAID?
USAID is an organization that provides foreign aid and humanitarian assistance to countries grappling with poverty, conflict, disease, and natural disasters. Initially established in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy, it has released billions of dollars since its inception across the world to support and propel struggling nations out of economic and political instability.
USAID assists approximately 130 countries and has a workforce of over 10,000 people worldwide, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). In 2023, the countries to receive the most funding from USAID (in descending order) were:
- Ukraine
- Ethiopia
- Jordan
- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Somalia
- Yemen
- Afghanistan
- Nigeria
- South Sudan
- Syria
Musk’s comments followed the news that two top USAID security chiefs had been placed on leave after they refused to hand over classified information to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, to inspection teams, according to a U.S. official to The Associated Press Sunday. The DOGE staff lacked sufficient security clearance to obtain and access the desired information, so the two USAID security officials – John Vorhees and Deputy Brian McGill – were legally obligated to deny access.
Despite facing resistance, the DOGE teams did eventually obtain access to the classified information, which includes intelligence reports, according to the former official. On Friday, two agency officials told Reuters that Musk aides, charged with running the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, locked senior government workers out of computer systems – a database that contains the personal data of millions of federal employees.
Is USAID corrupt?
A review of USAID’s recent history shows that it repeatedly has been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Donald Trump's second administration, Fox News Digital found. Fox News Digital looked back at the controversies USAID has faced in recent years, finding a bevy of allegations, including that the agency reportedly helped fund terrorist organizations and Chinese groups, and that its watchdog allegedly omitted negative findings from publicly published reports.
How many people work for USAID?
According to Forbes, USAID has 10,000 employees who will all now have their jobs at risk. If Trump dissolves USAID, employees will either go on paid administrative leave or lose their jobs, forcing them to seek legal action or wait for a court order. The immediate impact could be financially devastating for those who lose their jobs.