Staff at world’s single largest aid donor ordered to stay at home as billionaire claims president’s support for closing agency. Copy link. twitter. facebook. whatsapp. USAid employees were ordered to stay at home on Monday after Elon Musk said Donald Trump had agreed to close the international development agency. “We’re shutting it down,” Mr Musk said in an audio message on X, adding that he had the US President’s “full support”.

Late on Sunday night staff received emails telling them not to come to the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday, Devex reported. The emails came less than 24 hours after two top USAid officials were suspended after they tried to stop representatives of Mr Musk from gaining access to restricted parts of the building. USAid is the world’s largest single aid donor, distributing some $72bn of assistance in 2023 to a wide range of causes, from natural disaster relief to access to clean water and HIV/Aids treatments.

Experts told The Telegraph that the closure of the agency is “haphazard and dangerous” and puts years of progress at risk. “Enormous, hard-fought gains over many decades are being undone, with the stroke of a pen,” Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC). Mr Musk, who is heading the president’s efforts to shrink the federal government, said the agency was “beyond repair” as he announced he had Trump’s approval to shut it down.

“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it,” Mr Musk said on Monday. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing.”. Trump has employed Mr Musk’s new so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to slash government spending. Eight Doge officials reportedly demanded entry to the entire headquarters of the agency, despite only a few of them having security clearance.

When USAid staff attempted to block access to certain areas, Doge officials allegedly threatened to call in federal marshals before they were eventually given access to “secure spaces” in the building. Director of Security John Voorhees and his deputy were placed on administrative leave while Matt Hopson, the USAid chief of staff, resigned, according to the Washington Post. Atul Gawande, a former USAid official, said that Doge officials dismantled a memorial wall honouring employees killed in the line of duty overseas, including those who died in the 1980 bombing of the US embassy in Lebanon.

He added that over 50 top USAid officials had been suspended. “This is a gift to our enemies and competitors. This pause is not a pause. It’s the destruction of the agency,” Mr Gawande said. “800 people work for USAids’s Global Health, 400 have been terminated. It’s not legal. It’s an unlawful shutdown, purge and dismantling of the agency.”. Mr Musk called USAid a “criminal organisation” on X over the weekend, adding that it was “evil” and “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America”.

Mr Musk said that he had discussed the move at length with Trump. “With regard to the USAid stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” he said. “I checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” he said. Mr Musk said Trump responded, “Yes”. “It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former President of Russia and the Deputy Chair of the Security Council, endorsed Mr Musk’s decision in a post on X, calling it a “smart move”. Officials in the Kremlin have long viewed USAid as a threat because of its work supporting pro-democracy groups, including some inside Russia. The agency was expelled from Russia in 2012 after being accused of meddling in the country’s politics.

Lawrence Gostin, Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told the Telegraph USAid had spread “US democratic values” around the world. “Trump’s decision will be a big hit to US influence. Our reputation as a compassionate nation and leader in health and development will be decimated.”. Countries including China could step in to fill the void left by the US, Karen Mathiasen, project director at the Center for Global Development, explained.

“The US reputation as a rational actor and reliable partner will suffer,” she said. Mr Warren added that the current political situation in America will “destabilise countries, communities and economies”. “It takes time to build up these programs and relationships, but just days to destroy them – and it will take more time to re-build, no matter who funds these efforts,” He said. “USAid has made America stronger, safer and more prosperous for decades and now it seems to be gone.”.