The USAID is experiencing some serious problems under Donald Trump’s presidency. After announcing the mass firing of over 1,000 USAID employees and putting a large number of others under administrative leave, the Trump government has now given those employees an extremely brief window to clear out their offices.
Behind the rampant firing of USAID employees is Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which, along with Trump’s support, is determined to bring the agency down to its knees. According to Musk and Trump, USAID’s policies are no longer relevant, and therefore, besides huge budget cuts, they have also planned to retain only a handful of employees in the agency.
As reported by the Associated Press, “the Republican majorities in the House and Senate have made no pushback against the administration’s actions. There’s virtually nothing left to fund, anyway: The administration now says it is eliminating more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in U.S. assistance around the world.”
Though it is important to have congressional authorization “to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID,” because of this silence, things have gotten worse. The exact number of USAID employees who have been fired or put on leave remains unknown. Moreover, employees at other locations have been told that they will be given a chance to get their belongings back from the office.
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A notice has also been posted on the agency’s website. It details which group of employees needs to arrive when to collect their belongings. They were asked not to carry any kind of arms and will be searched by security personnel before being allowed to go to their workstations. Employees who have been fired will have to give back any USAID materials, while those on leave can retain them temporarily.
This decision has naturally caused a lot of anger among the USAID employees. Besides being fired and put on leave on the basis of nothing, these people are stripped of basic respect as they are given only 15 minutes at their work desks to clear out whatever they have and then leave.
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Right on his first day as the President, Trump signed an executive order that froze the funds of USAID as he said that money was being wasted in that agency, which did not fall in line with his idea of foreign policies. This move had led to a lawsuit being filed by several non-profit organizations but as is evident, Trump and Musk have not stopped on their goal of destroying the USAID.
With the destruction of USAID almost done, it now remains to be seen if the American judiciary system can reverse such random decisions by the President and his billionaire buddy.
Right now, there does not seem to be much hope in that regard because Donald Trump and Musk are moving quite swiftly with their agenda of running various federal departments that do not align with their views and visions.
