USAID’s workforce is expected to be slashed days after Musk called the federal agency a ‘criminal organization’. President Donald Trump’s administration is working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development — the very agency that the president’s wife and daughter promoted seven years ago. The president has threatened to end USAID, which provides humanitarian assistance around the globe. Earlier this week, Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency and Trump’s “First Buddy,” took aim at the agency, calling it a “criminal organization.”.
![[First Lady Melania Trump said she was “pleased” to work with USAID during a tour with Africa during her husband’s first term. Seven years later, the government is slashing the agency.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/07/15/52/US-First-Lady-Melania-Trump-tours-the-Egyptian-pyramids-and-Sphinx-in-Giza-Egypt-October-6-2018-the.jpeg)
Days later, the White House announced Friday its plans to retain just over 600 of the federal agency’s 10,000 employees, slightly more than the 300 staff the administration had previously planned to keep on. “It was a nice opportunity to see the pyramids in person, which are truly a historical treasure,” she said. “We must always do our best to preserve such important historical sites, and I was so pleased to learn of the work that USAID has done to help with preservation efforts at the base of the Sphinx.”.
![[First Lady Melania Trump heaped praise on USAID’s work on a foreign trip during Trump’s first term. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/07/15/43/TOPSHOT-US-First-Lady-Melania-Trump-disembarks-from-her-military-airplane-upon-arrival-at-Lilongwe-I.jpeg)
