In the US, the new Donald Trump administration has moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the agency that organizes US government aid around the world.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Monday, Musk held a live session on X Spaces, formerly known as Twitter Spaces, and said he spoke to the president in detail about USAID.<\/p>\n
Musk stated, \u2018He agreed that we should shut it down. It turned out that this is not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms. You basically need to get rid of everything. It’s beyond repair. We’re shutting it down,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
In an X Spaces chat he co-hosted with Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and Vivek Ramaswamy earlier Monday, Musk called USAID \u2018incredibly partisan politically\u2019 and suggested that it supports \u2018radical left-wing causes around the world, including anti-American things.\u2019<\/p>\n
USAID as a US \u2018soft power\u2019 tool<\/b><\/p>\n
USAID was established in 1961 under the administration of President John F. Kennedy and operates as the \u2018humanitarian\u2019 arm of the US government.<\/p>\n
Distributing billions of dollars annually around the world to \u2018alleviate poverty, treat disease, and respond to famine and natural disasters\u2019, the agency conducted its work mainly by \u2018promoting democracy building and development\u2019 through supporting civil society organizations, media, and social enterprises in other countries.<\/p>\n
According to CNN, USAID is an important \u2018soft power\u2019 tool for improving US relations with societies around the world. Officials stated that US national security is approached through the \u2018three Ds\u2019 pillars: defense, diplomacy, and development, which are managed by the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and USAID, respectively.<\/p>\n
Musk’s team granted access to classified information<\/b><\/p>\n
Musk made this statement on behalf of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Speaking to the Associated Press (AP) on Sunday, a current and a former US official said the administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to hand over classified material in restricted areas to DOGE teams under Musk’s direction.<\/p>\n
DOGE members gained access on Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, including intelligence reports, the former official said.<\/p>\n
Musk’s DOGE team did not have high enough security clearance to access that information, so two USAID security officials, John Voorhees and his deputy Brian McGill, saw themselves legally obliged to deny access.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, in response to an X post about the news, Musk stated, \u2018USAID is a criminal organization. It’s time to die,\u2019 he said, and then made other posts about the charity on X.<\/p>\n
Treasury also granted access to social security and Medicare files<\/b><\/p>\n
Musk suggested that the DOGE team had discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at the Treasury were \u2018always instructed to approve payments, even to known fraudster or terrorist groups\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018They have literally never rejected a payment in their entire careers. Not once,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n
Kate Miller, who serves on an advisory board for DOGE, said in a separate post that no classified material was accessed \u2018without proper security clearances.\u2019<\/p>\n
This comes a day after DOGE conducted a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information, including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official resigned after Musk’s team accessed sensitive information. The person in question is said to be David Lebryk, who has long overseen the Treasury’s vast financing and payment operations.<\/p>\n
The system controls payments to Social Security recipients, tax refund recipients, and grant recipients, as well as payments to federal employees and government contractors.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed off on a plan to provide access to the payment system to a team led by Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause, who currently works for the Treasury Department and serves as a liaison with the DOGE group, POLITICO reported.<\/p>\n
Krause’s role will be subject to safeguards that will not allow him to make any changes to the system, and no one outside the Treasury will have access, a person familiar with the work said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The minister’s approval was conditional on the fact that this was essentially an operation to read documents,\u2019 one source told POLITICO.<\/p>\n
Trump: USAID is run by a bunch of radical lunatics<\/b><\/p>\n
USAID, whose website disappeared without explanation on Saturday, has been one of the most targeted federal agencies in the Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters about USAID on Sunday night, Trump argued that the agency was run by \u2018a bunch of radical lunatics\u2019 and that the new administration was taking them out.<\/p>\n
Peter Marocco, a political appointee in Trump’s first term, played a leading role in implementing the closure. USAID employees say they believe the outsiders with visitor badges asking questions of staff at the Washington headquarters are members of Musk’s DOGE team.<\/p>\n
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a post on Sunday that Trump allowed Musk to access people’s personal information and shut down government funding.<\/p>\n
\u2018We must do everything we can to step back and protect people from harm,\u2019 the Massachusetts senator said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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