The Trump administration reportedly intends to merge the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with the US Department of State after days of upheaval.
Plans involved a significant reduction in USAID’s funding and the workforce, CBS News, BBC’s US partner, reports, but it would continue its function as an aid agency.
The reported plan portends even more significant disruption for USAID, whose employees were told to stay home on Monday as Elon Musk claimed the agency would be shut down.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The comments from the billionaire Trump adviser, who is not a government official, came amid turmoil after two top security officials were placed on leave. The agency’s website has not worked since Saturday.
But President Trump was less definitive about shuttering the agency, telling reporters on Sunday night that USAID was run by “a bunch of radical lunatics”.
“We’re getting them out,” he said, “and then we’ll make a decision.”
Over the last week, Musk railed against USAID as he sought to assert control over the agency. Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a team that is not an official government but that Trump has given broad leeway to slash government spending.
Musk does not have the authority to shut down a government department and the legality of such a move is in question.
On X, the social media platform that he owns, he called it “evil” and a “criminal organisation”. In a live stream on X early Monday, he told followers, “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair. … We’re shutting it down.”
Staffers who work at the agency’s Washington DC headquarters were told to stay home on Monday. Hundreds of employees were also locked out of their email, according to an internal email obtained by the BBC.
An effort could be underway to bring USAID, which was established by an act of the US Congress, more directly under the control of Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Republican congressman Brian Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told “Face the Nation” that USAID is “likely going to be rolled more closely under Secretary Rubio.”
Whether the agency is shut down or restructured, the changes sought by Musk and Trump would have far-reaching implications. USAID distributes billions in aid to non-governmental organisations, aid groups and nonprofits around the world.
With its website down, several key information reserves, including an international famine tracker and decades of aid records, appeared to be unavailable.
Top officials have been placed on leave or resigned in the last two days following clashes with Musk’s (Doge), a team set up in consultation with the administration that Trump has given broad leeway to slash government spending.
Members of Doge clashed with the security officials after requesting access to a highly secure area used for reviewing classified information, the Washington Post and CNN reported this weekend.
“No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” Katie Miller, a spokesperson for Doge, wrote on X.
USAID director for security John Vorhees and deputy Director for Security Brian McGill, were both placed on administrative leave as a result, CBS reports.
A top political appointee, chief of staff Matt Hopson, also resigned, the Washington Post reported.