The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared himself the acting administrator of the besieged United States Agency for International Aid (USAid) on Monday as staffers were locked out of its Washington DC headquarters and the White House confirmed plans to merge it into the state department.
The agency has become a touchpoint for the Trump administration’s efforts to seize control of federal spending in recent days through Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
Two senior USAid security officials were suspended on Sunday for blocking Doge officials from a restricted area, a day after the agency’s website went offline, and Musk posted to X that USAid was “beyond repair” and needed to be shut down.
Talking to reporters on Monday in El Salvador, where he is on a state visit, Rubio told reporters he had assumed control of USAid to “align” it with Trump’s priorities.
“Our goal was to go in and align our foreign aid to the national interest,” he said.
“If you go from mission after mission and embassy after embassy around the world you will often find, in many cases, that USAid is involved in programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy with that country or region. That cannot continue.”
The agency manages almost $43bn in food, humanitarian and other aid, including clean water programs and the provision of medicines, to about 130 countries. Staffers were told in a late-night email on Sunday not to report for work on Monday morning.
Separately, a White House source said on Monday that Trump and administration officials were discussing a merger of USAid into the state department and planned to send a notification to Congress shortly about his plans, Reuters reported.
The goal was to “to significantly reduce the size of the workforce for efficiency purposes and to ensure their spending is in line with the president’s agenda”, the unnamed senior official said.
Musk, the billionaire who has repeatedly called USAid a “criminal organization”, said he had discussed with Trump in detail his plan for closing it – and that the president had agreed.
“I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’ And so we’re shutting it down,” Musk said, reported by the Washington Post.
USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America first” policy that is already sending shock waves around the world. Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.
Workers for Doge, an unofficial government department with no congressionally approved mandate, have also gained access to the US treasury’s highly sensitive database and federal payments system, it was reported on Sunday.
According to Wired magazine, the Doge team is being led by a group of six “young and inexperienced” engineers aged 19 to 24, one of whom is still in college. The decision by the new treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to allow Doge “full access” to the personal data of millions of Americans as well as details of public contractors who compete directly with Musk’s own businesses has raised conflict of interest concerns.
Devex, a media platform for the global development community, obtained a copy of the email sent to USAid employees working at its headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington DC ordering them to stay at home Monday. It was sent hours after its director of security, John Voorhees, and a deputy were placed on “administrative leave” Sunday after they physically blocked the Doge team from restricted areas.
Doge subsequently gained control of the building’s access system, which allowed them to lock out employees and read emails. The department also sought personnel files and turnstile data, sources said.
Democrats and other critics have condemned the targeting of USAid by Musk and the Trump administration. That has been part of a wider, determined push by Trump to wrest control of and remake large chunks of the federal apparatus during his second presidency.
The Democratic Hawaii senator Brian Schatz told the Wall Street Journal on Monday that he would hold up all of Trump’s state department nominees until USAid is again allowed to operate normally and the administration ceased its “authoritarian behavior”.
Such a move will require the Republican Senate majority leader John Thune to spend valuable floor time to advance Trump’s nominees through the confirmation process.
Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic Maryland senator, joined party colleagues at a press conference at USAid headquarters on Monday to denounce Musk’s involvement in dismantling the agency.
“This is a clear and present danger for the future of our country. Make no mistake, this effort by Elon Musk and so-called Doge to shut down the agency is an absolute gift to our adversaries, to Russia, to China, to Iran and others,” he said.
“This has nothing to do with making the US government more efficient, and everything to do with aiding and abetting our adversaries around the world.”
