After obtaining approval from the Trump administration, Elon Musk has shut down the headquarters for a huge source of government corruption and wasteful spending (to put it lightly): USAID.
Early Monday morning, over six hundred staffers for the HQ in Washington, D.C. got an email informing them to stay home.
Here’s a copy of that email from one of the employees:
There it is. After Trump and Musk pledged to shut down USAID, staff received an email in the middle of the night informing them HQ will be closed today.
USAID is an independent agency. Only Congress has authority to eliminate it. pic.twitter.com/6IHI0hfNGs
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) February 3, 2025
The Daily Mail reported:
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump shut down the embattled government agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas after they agreed the organization was ‘beyond repair’.
The billionaire ‘first buddy’ led a civilian review of the federal government with Trump’s go-ahead and decided this week to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
ADVERTISEMENTStaff were shocked when they woke up Monday morning to emails instructing them to stay out of the agency’s D.C. headquarters.
‘It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in,’ Musk said of the six-decade U.S. international aid and development agency. ‘What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.’
‘We’re shutting it down,’ he said in the audio-only appearance on X.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss noted in the announcement on his social media site that he spoke with Trump about the agency and they ‘agreed we should shut it down.’
As of 2016, USAID reported that it had 10,235 employees on its payroll.
It managed more than $40 billion in appropriations in Fiscal Year 2023, which is less than 1 percent of the federal budget. USAID provides development and assistance in about 130 countries with these funds.
For this fiscal year, the President’s budget request was $28.3 billion in foreign assistance.
USAID staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight.
Those still in the system received messages to their work emails saying ‘at the direction of Agency leadership’ the headquarters building ‘will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.’
Copies of the email show that replies were sent to Gavin Kliger, one of the six young engineers working for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which appears to be operating under the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
ADVERTISEMENTThe website for USAID was also shutdown as of Monday morning.
The official government website for USAID and any former links for the site’s webpages now shows a browser error message: ‘This site can’t be reached.’
Prior to shutting it down, Elon Musk had exposed the extent of USAID’s corruption on an X podcast, calling it “beyond repair.”
He aptly compared the organization to a “ball of worms” as opposed to an “apple with a worm in it.”
Listen to what he had to say about it for yourself here:
🚨ELON MUSK: "As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it's hopeless. USAID is… pic.twitter.com/fd00gMFmqS
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) February 3, 2025
Of course, the MSM is freaking out.
Democrats are also panicking, staging protests out the USAID HQ.
Here are some of those clips:
🇺🇸 DEMOCRATS HOLD PROTEST AT USAID BUILDING IN DC
The democrats are literally protesting against shutting down a CIA-front organization. This shows you exactly who is owned by the deep-state.
Keep going, Elon Musk.
Keep going, Trump! 😎🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/dKNc5ABs1o— Diligent Denizen 🇺🇸 (@DiligentDenizen) February 3, 2025
🚨 My colleagues and I were just denied entry to USAID HQ on the orders of President Trump and Elon Musk.
Shutting down USAID is unlawful, inhumane, and a gift to adversaries like Russia and China.
I will not stop fighting to protect American national security interests. pic.twitter.com/wmpr8voEBC
— Congressman Eugene Vindman (@RepVindman) February 3, 2025
I went to the steps of USAID to tell the truth about how USAID protects America and the real reason Elon Musk wants to shut it down. pic.twitter.com/vsDUMPDAvb
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 3, 2025
Elon Musk called out these protestors, and the real reason why they’re protesting…
The corrupt politicians “protesting” outside the USAID building are the ones getting money from USAID.
That’s why they’re there – they want your stolen tax dollars! https://t.co/5yVDqg0mjw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
Paul A. Szypula pointed out how news outlets like ABC News are ‘conveniently’ leaving out key details in their reports, like the fact that USAID does little to help the American people while being used to fatten the pocketbooks of politicians.
ABC is freaking out because USAID is being shut down after DOGE exposed USAID for wasting billions of US tax dollars on foreign nonsense that does nothing to aid the American people and only enriches some DC politicians.
ABC left out the part about the rampant waste by USAID. pic.twitter.com/uzSRiZRugA
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 3, 2025
Ron Paul made a great video explaining why USAID is beyond salvation and needs to be shut down permanently.
He did not hold back exposing the multitude of ways that the organization is used to fund regime change across the globe.
Watch here:
Ron Paul is NOT HOLDING BACK 🔥
“USAID is a key component of the U.S. Government’s Regime Change Operations Worldwide. They spend $B’s every year…propping up NGO’s overseas that function as Shadow Governments…they must be SHUT DOWN…” pic.twitter.com/8xHVB7loYo
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) February 4, 2025
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also exposed the USAID’s crazy wasteful spending:
🚨HOLY SMOKES: Karoline Leavitt just EXPOSED USAID by laying out exactly what taxpayers money is being wasted on:
– $2.5 MILLION to DEI in Serbia
– $70,000 onan Irish DEI musical
– $47,000 on transgender operas in Colombia
– $32,000 on a trans comic book in PeruSHUT IT DOWN! pic.twitter.com/WA2MNrPDDK
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 3, 2025
Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer is terrified that if Elon Musk has the gall to shut down USAID, he might come for something more important next!
Like the IRS!
What would we ever do without the IRS?!
You’ve gotta see it for yourself:
Chuck Schumer just threatened every American with a jolly good time. He believes that if Elon Musk succeeds in shutting down USAID, the IRS could get shut down next.
OH NO! How will we ever live without the IRS harassing us every April???? Someone needs to save us. pic.twitter.com/qgHfbePhYd
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 4, 2025
Other Democrats are following suit:
Democrats are now warning that if Elon Musk succeeds in shutting down USAID, he could do it to other Departments & Agencies.
AND??? That's great news for America.
pic.twitter.com/nNKKPQcseG— George (@BehizyTweets) February 3, 2025
Just goes to show you what these people’s priorities are…
Wonder why they’re so panicked?
Could it be that DOGE is attacking the heart of the Deep State?..
Talked to a friend who has connections within the Democratic Party and he said the level of panic over Trump and Elon shutting down USAID is unlike anything he’s ever seen.
By following the money DOGE has struck a killing blow to the heart of the Democrat deep state machine.
— Aesthetica (@Anc_Aesthetics) February 4, 2025
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!