Elon Musk said that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) should “die” amid reports that two high-ranking security officials at the agency were placed on leave for denying its representatives access to classified material.
“USAID is a criminal organisation. It’s time for it to die,” Musk wrote on X.
This is how the businessman responded to the publication that two officials of the organisation were sent on leave after refusing to give members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), of which Musk is the head, access to USAID systems.
Musk later posted a post in which he again called USAID a criminal organisation. This time it was in response to a post by Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO). FFO is an online rights watchdog group that advocates for an open internet.
In his post, Benz wrote that he had been live-streaming USAID’s activities, particularly its “key role in the fraudulent work of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
In another post, Musk asked his followers, “Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people.”
US President Donald Trump, in turn, said, speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, DC, that “USAID is run by deranged radicals and we’re going to take them out and then we’ll make a decision.” According to The Wall Street Journal, USAID has put some employees on unpaid leave over suspicions of trying to circumvent the president’s executive order or has terminated contracts.
On January 20, Trump signed an executive order freezing USAID’s international aid programmes for 90 days. During this time it is planned to assess their “effectiveness and compliance with the foreign policy of the United States.” In 2023, $42.5bn was allocated through USAID.
The USAID website had earlier stopped working. As CNN reported, it was shut down on Saturday, without explanation. Democrats in Congress are concerned that Trump may terminate USAID as an independent agency and turn it over to the State Department. They insist that the Republican has no legal authority to eliminate the congressionally funded agency and that its work is vital to national security, the agency notes.
USAID’s Social Network X account is also unavailable. “This account does not exist,” a message on the agency’s page reads.
