Musk says Trump has "agreed" to shut USAID down
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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the U.S. Capitol last month. Photo: Kevin Lamarque - Pool/Getty Images
Elon Musk said President Trump has "agreed" to "shut" the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) down.
The big picture: Musk's comments early Monday followed reports that two senior USAID security officials were placed on administrative leave after denying representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which the billionaire spearheads, access to internal systems during a visit to the agency's D.C. headquarters.
- While representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment in the evening, the president told reporters earlier Sunday that USAID was "run by radical lunatics, and we're getting them out, and then we'll make a decision" on its future.
- Trump has already ordered a freeze on foreign aid as part of his "America first" foreign policy. The U.S. government is the world's single largest humanitarian donor.
Driving the news: Musk said during a late-night discussion with former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on his X Spaces platform he went over USAID issues in detail with Trump and checked with him a few times if he was sure that he wanted to shut it down and he agreed to do it.
- The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also accused the agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance of being "incredibly politically partisan," without going into specific examples.
Zoom in: Ernst, who's previously led investigations into USAID, said "there are probably some arguments to be made about what could be important work that falls under USAID, but the fact of matter is, it has been overshadowed by these bad actors."
- She suggested if there are "truly good pro-American programs, let's move them to the State Department," to which Musk replied: "Exactly."
- Ernst emphasized the need for oversight while giving examples of what she said were her findings of waste in USAID, while Ramaswamy said there was a need for the agency's "deletion."
- Musk said he was looking to shut USAID down because it's "a bowl of worms" with no apple, so you've "got to get rid of the whole thing" because it's "beyond repair."
Zoom out: Senate Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio Sunday to demand answers about the DOGE representatives' USAID visit.
- They raised concern that the reps may have accessed American citizens' data and classified spaces, and that the subsequent placing on administrative leave of senior USAID personnel might compromise national security.
- Katie Miller, a Trump appointee on DOGE's advisory board, said on X: "No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances" during the visit.
Go deeper: Trump says USAID run by "lunatics" as Dems demand answers on DOGE visit
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
