USAID website goes ‘offline’ amid Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid programs
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s website went offline on Saturday without explanation, as President Donald Trump‘s freeze on U.S.-funded foreign aid and development programs led to thousands of furloughs, layoffs, and program shutdowns.
As reported by the Associated Press, Congressional Democrats openly clashed with the Trump administration, expressing fears that Trump may be moving toward dissolving USAID as an independent agency and merging it into the State Department. Democrats argue that Trump lacks the legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency and emphasize that USAID’s work is crucial to national security.
The report noted that Trump and congressional Republicans say much of foreign aid and development programs is wasteful. They single out programs they say advance liberal social agendas.
The fear of more severe action against USAID comes two weeks into the administration’s halt of billions of dollars in U.S. humanitarian, development, and security assistance.
The U.S. is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, but it allocates less than 1% of its budget to foreign assistance, a smaller share compared to some other countries.
Administration officials declined to comment on Saturday when asked about concerns raised by lawmakers and others regarding Trump potentially ending USAID’s independent status.
President John F. Kennedy created the organization at the height of the Cold War to counter Soviet influence. USAID today is at the center of U.S. challenges to the growing influence of China, which has a successful “Belt and Road” foreign aid program of its own.
Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, and Kennedy signed that law and an executive order establishing USAID as an independent agency.
USAID staffers spent Friday and Saturday in chat groups monitoring its fate, giving updates on whether the agency’s flag and signs were still up outside agency headquarters in Washington. As of late Saturday afternoon, they were.
In a post on X, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said presidents cannot eliminate congressionally appropriated federal agencies by executive order, and said Trump was poised to “double down on a constitutional crisis.”
“That’s what a despot — who wants to steal the taxpayers’ money to enrich his billionaire cabal — does,” Murphy said.
Billionaire Elon Musk, advising Trump in a campaign to whittle down the federal government in the name of efficiency, endorsed posts on his X site calling for dissolving USAID.
Musk reacts
“Live by executive order, die by executive order,” Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted in reference to USAID.
Trump placed an unprecedented 90-day freeze on foreign assistance on his first day in office Jan. 20. The order, a tougher-than-expected interpretation of Trump’s freeze order on Jan. 24 drafted by Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term, shut down thousands of programs around the world and forced the furloughs or layoffs of many thousands.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to keep more kinds of strictly life-saving emergency programs going during the freeze. Aid groups say confusion surrounding what programs are still allowed to operate is contributing to paralysis in global aid organizations.
Rubio, in his first public comments on the matter, said Thursday that USAID’s programs were being reviewed to eliminate any that are not in the U.S. national interest, but he said nothing about eliminating it as an agency.
The shutdown of U.S.-funded programs during the 90-day review meant the U.S. was “getting a lot more cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, development and security assistance, Rubio said.
Republicans and Democrats have long been at odds over USAID, debating whether humanitarian and development aid helps protect the U.S. by stabilizing partner countries and economies or is an inefficient use of funds. Republicans typically advocate for giving the State Department more control over USAID’s policies and finances, while Democrats generally support maintaining USAID’s autonomy and authority.
That’s what a despot — who wants to steal the taxpayers’ money to enrich his billionaire cabal — does.
This conflict resurfaced during Trump’s first term, when he attempted to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third. When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to reduce the flow of funds already approved by Congress for foreign programs. The General Accounting Office later determined that this action violated the Impoundment Control Act.
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