Billionaire Elon Musk announced that he and President Donald Trump were already in the process of shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development in a post shared on his X account early Monday (February 3) morning.
Musk, 53, who serves as the leader of Trump’s newly launched Department of Government Efficiency, made his announcement at around midnight in an audio-only Spaces rant.
“We’re shutting it down,” Musk said about the USAID before later clarifying “we’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”
Musk didn’t say what legal authority he believed the White House had to shut down the federal agency without first receiving approval from congress, or how quickly the process would take, but confirmed he had “the full support of the president” and that he and Trump discussed the plan several times.
“With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said.
“I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” he added, claiming Trump responded, “Yes.”
The USAID’s director of security and his deputies were placed on administrative leave Saturday (February 1) after attempting to prohibit DOGE employees from accessing its secure systems, which included personnel files and security systems, several sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to NBC News on Sunday (February 2). Trump said Musk “is doing a good job” and bashed the USAID as being “run by a bunch of lunatics” while addressing reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday, but didn’t publicly confirm plans to shut down the agency entirely at the time.
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