What is USAID and why is Elon Musk trying to kill it?
During the early morning of Monday, Feb. 3, protesters flooded the Washington, D.C. street that marks the entrance to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The group wasn't trying to enter the federal premises in a violent takeover, but rather act as a wall of defense between the government agency and a directive to cease the organization's work as a matter of fiduciary foresight. Later that afternoon, the USAID office shut down. The official USAID website is no longer available. SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's DOGE takeover is reportedly being spearheaded by young college grads The decisions came after Elon Musk — newly-appointed leader of DOGE, a non-government agency with no official government powers or legal precedent for intervening in federal spending — declared he would be cutting off USAID, halting tens of billion in foreign aid spending. Musk, incentivized by President Trump's commitment to "cut federal spending" set his sights on what he called an "evil" "criminal organization," and a "viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America." Federal employees were then barred from entering the D.C. premises, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared he would step in as de-facto USAID administrator, calling the humanitarian organization "a completely unresponsive agency" that needed to be "aligned" with U.S. foreign policy. Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted What is USAID? The U.S. Agency for International Development operates the federal government's global aid budget and associated programs, serving as "the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms," according to the agency's archived website (accessible on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). USAID was established in the 1960s under an executive order by President John F. Kennedy, a result of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act intended to streamline foreign aid and efficiently admini
What is USAID and why is Elon Musk trying to kill it?