US aid agency HQ closed after Elon Musk reveals plan to ‘shut it down’

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The future of the main US agency for foreign aid is in doubt after its headquarters were unexpectedly closed on Monday, with staffers ordered to work from home after President Donald Trump said it was run by “radical lunatics”.

Aid workers, diplomats and lawmakers have been trying to make sense of a series of ominous incidents at the US Agency for International Development. Its website is down, some officials have lost access to emails and been put on leave, and there are suggestions it will be absorbed into the state department.

An email to staff, seen by the Financial Times, said USAID’s headquarters in Washington DC would be closed to personnel on Monday “at the direction of Agency leadership”, with staff directed to work remotely. “Further guidance will be forthcoming,” the email said.

On Sunday night, Trump told reporters that USAID had been “run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out . . . and then we’ll make a decision”.

Elon Musk, whose “Department of Government Efficiency” has been involved in the moves against USAID, said he had President Donald Trump’s support to shut the agency down.

“None of this could be done without the full support of the president,” Musk said during an early Monday morning audio conversation on X. “With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over with him in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down.”

Trump has made Musk’s Doge responsible for cutting what both men say is wasteful US government spending. The email to USAID staff came from Gavin Kliger, who according to multiple media reports is an engineer on Musk’s Doge team. Kliger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“President Trump spent two weeks harassing and laying off USAID employees, and now his team is trying to gut the agency altogether,” Democratic senator Chris Coons said on X.

USAID is an independent agency with about 10,000 employees worldwide that is responsible for administering US foreign aid and development programmes. Former president Joe Biden had elevated the USAID administrator to the National Security Council. Trump has not named a new USAID administrator.

The state department did not respond to repeated requests for comment about changes at the agency. The USAID administrator works under the authority of secretary of state Marco Rubio but has their own budget. USAID did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Trump and his team have made clear that they want US foreign aid to align with his “America First” platform. The absorption of USAID into the state department could mean less money available for long-standing US development and assistance programmes. This would slash US spending but could also harm humanitarian efforts worldwide and allow China to fill the void.

Brian Mast, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee, said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that USAID was “likely going to be rolled more closely under secretary Rubio”.

“I would be absolutely for, if that’s the path we go down, removing USAID as a separate department, and having it fall under . . . other parts of the United States . . . because of its failure.”

Two top security officials were placed on leave on Saturday after they refused to allow officials from Doge to access agency systems, including classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter.

CNN first reported the clash. Dozens of other career USAID officials have also been put on leave since last week, with some accused of trying to thwart Trump’s directions for the agency.

Trump has already frozen billions of dollars in foreign assistance. The immediate pause to all foreign aid projects has prompted crises at humanitarian and development organisations involved in everything from life-saving medical activities to anti-narcotics efforts to clean water programmes.

Hundreds have been fired or furloughed and more cuts are expected in the weeks ahead. The state department last week created an exemption for some life-saving humanitarian assistance.

Current and former officials said the potential absorption of USAID into the state department could be a test case for the Trump administration as it looks to wield executive power.

“This administration appears to be testing what they can get away with in terms of acting unilaterally to reshape the functions and the footprint of the US government in ways that Congress has not authorised, Congress has not appropriated for, and Congress has, in fact, prohibited them from doing in certain statutes,” said Tess Bridgeman, who worked in the state department’s legal adviser office and on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.