Feb. 3 (UPI) — Federal employees of the United States Agency for International Development were working from home Monday after being instructed not to report for duty at the department’s main office in downtown Washington because it was closed.
“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,” workers were told in an email sent just after midnight, a copy of which CNN said it had obtained.
“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,” said the email.
Attempts by UPI to access the agency’s website and social media accounts were unsuccessful, with all apparently offline as of 8 a.m. EST.
Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur in charge of President Donald Trump‘s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, followed up early Monday by saying the department was in the process of being shut down.
The lockout came two days after two senior USAID security officials were placed on administrative leave for refusing to allow Musk’s team access to classified documents for which they lacked the necessary security clearances and little more than a week after all existing foreign aid was suspended for 90 days, pending review, with exceptions for Israel and Egypt.
Musk said in a conversation on his X Spaces forum that Trump agreed the agency needed to be shuttered after earlier posting on his X account that USAID was “a criminal organization” and that it was “time for it to die.”
The Tesla and Space X owner accused the independent Congress-backed 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.”
He 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.
“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.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night, Trump concurred 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.
The implications for the world’s largest provider of food assistance to the developing world remain unclear but many of the organizations that deliver U.S. humanitarian aid have warned they may have to suspend operations or close altogether.
The Washington Post said the move on USAID demonstrated the new administration’s determination to force a change in the direction of the United States’ foreign policy establishment toward the implementation of Trump’s “America First” policies.
The paper described the agency as having been besieged since Trump came into office Jan. 20 “whipsawed by aid freezes, personnel purges and confusion.”