Billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading US President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, gave an update on the effort early on Monday, saying they were working to shut down the US foreign aid agency USAID.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, discussed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a Monday social media talk on X, which he also owns. Trump has assigned Musk to lead a federal cost-cutting panel.
The conversation, which included former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, began with Musk saying they were working to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agrees it should be shut down.
On Sunday, it was reported that the Trump administration had removed two top security officials at USAID during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from Musk’s DOGE from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.
The website of USAID appeared to still be offline on Saturday and some users could not access it on Sunday. USAID has a staff of more than 10,000 people.
Speaking more broadly about cutting US expenses and fraud, Musk estimated the Trump administration can cut US$1 trillion from the US deficit next year.
Musk did not offer any evidence to support his fraud claim or explain how he reached the amount of US$1 trillion.
Since taking office 11 days ago, Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
Genuinely curious why Trump is getting rid of historically the US's most reliable source for regime change. For those who don't know, the vast majority of USAID goes strictly to opposition groups in countries the US is on bad terms with, and to the ruling govrnments and millitaries of those we are on good terms with. It's how the US maintains hegemony. Some USAID went to good people and projects, of course, but never for a second think that that was its primary purpose.
One theory I saw is that the US Imperialists have noticed many of their typical regime change attempts, such as in Bolivia and Venezuela, are failing, therefore it isn't any longer an efficient use of funds. Now the US is pivoting to more open-faced aggression via tariffs and other forms of economic warfare, sanctions, and so forth. The reason, is because US hegemony is weakening, and other countries like the PRC are becoming much better alternatives to deal with.
So some of that was probably going to daddy putin’s opposition…
Potentially. It seems the Russo-Ukrainian war is coming to a close, perhaps by Summer, though USAID and aid for Ukraine are not inherently the same thing.
Because that's a lot of money that isn't going to his favorite charities.
Any question of why Trump does something that doesn't seem to make sense has a very simple answer. He's an idiot. And the answer to your following question is "Yes, he is."
Trump is an idiot, but the United States isn't structured in a way where the President can go against the will of the Bourgeoisie. Behind closed doors there are talks and strategies employed, this isn't a new thing.
We haven't had a moron with this strong a cult of personality as president though. If anyone tries to challenge him he has an army of Red Hats who will punish anyone he tells them to
I'll point you to good ol George W. Bush. He was also an idiot with a huge cult following, though different, and the levers of power were pulled in his admin purely for US Imperialist interests.