THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2025 9 TALKING POINTS Trump Administration Dismantles USAID Just hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the White House issued an executive order imposing an immediate 90-day freeze on new foreign development assistance obligations and disbursements. Under the directive, all aid programs were to be reviewed for “programmatic efficiency and consistency with U.S. foreign policy,” with final determinations made by the Secretary of State in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget. The freeze applied not only to new spending but to all foreign assistance spending, cutting off public health and other programs in progress. Over the weekend of Feb. 1, 2025, President Trump and Elon Musk (the “special government employee” running DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency) announced plans to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In the days that followed, USAID was effectively shuttered, with headquarters locked down and its website taken offline. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has assumed the role of acting Administrator, appointed Trump ally Peter Marocco, who served briefly as assistant to the USAID Administrator during the first Trump administration, to oversee the agency’s restructuring. On the night of Feb. 4, the usaid. gov site reappeared—with only a notice instructing nearly all USAID employees, both domestic and overseas—to stop work by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7. Direct hires were given 30 days to leave post and personal service contractor staff were terminated. The shutdown froze billions of dollars in aid, left thousands of workers scrambling to evacuate U.S. embassies, and AFSA emphasized that USAID officers are nonpartisan public servants and announced its intention to pursue legal action. On Feb. 6, AFSA joined a lawsuit with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in a case filed by Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group against the Trump administration, challenging the legality of USAID’s shutdown and the mass removal of its workforce. As a result, on Feb. 7, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the administration from placing 2,000 USAID employees on administrative leave, which had been set to take effect at midnight. He also reinstated 500 workers who had already been placed on leave and ordered their access to email, payment, and security notification systems restored. Nichols delayed the administration’s plan to enforce a 30-day evacuation deadline for overseas personnel, citing its disruption to employees’ lives and the lack of clear justification from the government. However, the judge declined to pause the funding freeze and scheduled an in-person preliminary injunction hearing for the following Wednesday to determine next steps. A hearing was scheduled for Feb. 12 on extending the TRO. New Secretary Welcomed to State Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was sworn in as the 72nd Secretary of State on Jan. 21, the first cabinet confirmation of President Donald J. Trump’s second term. Rubio, 53, replaces Antony Blinken as the nation’s top diplomat after receiving a Rally in Washington, D.C., in support of USAID on Feb. 5. AFSA/MARK PARKHOMENKO stalled humanitarian and development projects in more than 120 countries. Meanwhile, Musk said on social media that he spent the weekend “feeding USAID into the woodchipper,” insisting that the agency is irreversibly corrupt, though without providing evidence. “USAID was established by an act of Congress, and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who joined a group of lawmakers attempting to meet with agency employees at USAID’s headquarters on Feb. 4. Yet, those same headquarters were effectively locked down. Yellow tape and federal officers blocked both staff and elected officials at the entrance. “This is a constitutional crisis,” warned Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). USAID “is the lead development agency in the world, and no one elected Elon Musk to dismantle it.” Protests continued across the nation on Feb. 5, with Democratic lawmakers and USAID supporters gathering outside the Capitol building to denounce what Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has called the “most corrupt bargain in American history.” In a statement on Feb. 4, AFSA strongly objected to the administration’s attempts to dismantle USAID, noting the many USAID Foreign Service officers who have risked—and, in some cases, given—their lives in service to U.S. interests abroad. “The sudden transfer of USAID’s functions to the State Department, apparently without congressional notification and no clear plan for continuity, raises serious concerns about the future of U.S. development policy and America’s global standing,” the statement read. On Feb. 5, AFSA issued another statement criticizing the decision to recall all USAID Foreign Service personnel as “sudden and unnecessary.”
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