Ever since Donald Trump has been back as the President of America, he has let Elon Musk get involved in major governmental decisions. Musk even has his own department, DOGE, at the White House. Apparently, he and Musk are both keen on cutting costs within the federal departments so that taxpayers’ money is not wasted and America does not go bankrupt.
While USAID has always been a massive target of both Trump and Musk ever since the former came into power, February 23, 2025, saw the biggest blow that USAID has received to date. On Sunday, nearly 1,600 employees at USAID were fired and placed on administrative leave.
The changes, as mentioned by the Trump administration, were to be implemented right away, meaning before Sunday midnight. As reported by Associated Press, USAID received an email with details, including the time when the changes were to be activated.
Post the email, USAID published a note on their website that said, “As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally.”
It further mentioned, “Concurrently, USAID is beginning to implement a Reduction-in-Force that will affect approximately 1,600 USAID personnel with duty stations in the United States.”
The note also mentioned that people who were affected by the mass lay-off must have been notified by February 23, 2025, and those who were to continue being a part of the department would also have been made aware.
View this post on Instagram
The Associated Press further reported that according to Pete Marocco, who the President hired to run the USAID, some 600 employees would be retained, and they would mostly deal with the sending-off process of the fired USAID employees and their families.
Lay-offs and rapid changes in rules have become common since Trump was sworn in as the President. Previously, in a federal order, Trump had dictated that all federal employees were to remove their pronouns from their email signatures. He also mentioned that in the future, only the existence of two genders, male and female, would be accepted. This puts the lives of transgender and LGBTQ people at risk, and it is clear that the government cannot care less about them.
View this post on Instagram
Back in February, Musk had claimed that he was already in the process of shutting down USAID. As per Newsweek, he mentioned, “As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it’s hopeless. USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple… that is why it’s gotta go. It’s beyond repair.”
He had also called the USAID a criminal organization, which happens to be in line with another absurd lie that Musk and Trump had propagated against USAID, saying that the agency was apparently sending condoms worth 50 million dollars to Gaza.
With this recent massive cut on USAID, it now remains to be seen what else the Trump government has in store for the agency and in what new ways the 47th POTUS and Tesla CEO would keep wreaking havoc on federal employees.
