U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday he is acting director of the United States Agency for International Development — the world’s largest provider of food assistance to underdeveloped parts of the globe — confirming the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department. The news came hours after Elon Musk said President Donald Trump had signed off on shutting the agency down.

SAID was established in 1961 by an act of Congress.

Any implication for the USAID remains largely unclear, but a number of organizations delivering humanitarian aid warned they may have to suspend operations or close altogether. Rubio stated that “the functions of USAID must align with U.S. foreign policy,” calling it “a completely unresponsive agency … there are things that USAID, that we do through USAID, that we should continue to do, and we will continue to do.”

The changes arrived as federal USAID employees worked Monday from home after being instructed to not report for duty at the department’s main office in downtown Washington because it was closed. Workers were told in an email sent just after midnight, a copy of which CNN said it had obtained, stating: “At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 .. Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership. 

Musk accused the independent agency — which has spent the past six decades spending billions of dollars annually alleviating poverty, disease and the impact of natural disasters around the world, as well as promoting democracy — of being “incredibly politically partisan,” and alleged it backed “radically left causes” around the world those that were “anti-American” and that, on the basis of what his team had found, it was so far that it could not be fixed.  Said Musk: “It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you just need to get rid of the whole thing. That’s why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair.”

Trump concurred with Musk, saying the agency had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision” on what future, if any, lay ahead for USAID.

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